NEW YORK, February 7, 2017: Morgan Lewis successfully defended Hitachi Metals America, a subsidiary of leading Japanese high-performance materials company Hitachi Metals Ltd. (HML), in connection with breach of contract claims brought by investment banking firm TrueNorth Capital Partners in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In TrueNorth Capital Partners LLC, et al. v. Hitachi Metals America, LLC, the plaintiff alleged that HMA owed TrueNorth a $6.8 million “completion fee,” plus other relief, in connection with the $1.3 billion acquisition by HMA’s parent company in 2014 of Waupaca Foundry, Inc., an iron casting business with five foundries in Wisconsin, Tennessee and Indiana. The lawsuit was initially filed against HMA, as well as its parent company and two affiliates. In July 2015, Morgan Lewis persuaded the court to dismiss HML and the other two named affiliate defendants for lack of personal jurisdiction in New York. After extensive fact discovery in the United States and Japan, the firm moved for complete summary judgment based on the terms and applicability of a contract between Plaintiff and HMA. After a lengthy oral argument before the court in late September 2016, on February 3, 2017, the court granted HMA’s motion for summary judgment in its entirety, denied a cross-motion for summary judgment filed by the plaintiff, and dismissed the case with prejudice.
The Morgan Lewis team was led by partner Troy Brown with support from of counsel Margot Bloom and associates Caitlin McKenna and Adria Lamba. Strategic guidance was provided throughout the case by partner Alan Neuwirth.