A district court in North Carolina has awarded Clark Material Handling Company more than USD9 million in damages in its case against Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A, Inc.

This follows the jury decision to award Clark USD3 million in February (Forkliftaction.com News #708).

District judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. trebled the damages pursuant to the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act and also ordered Toyota to pay costs in a judgment that was entered in the district court last week.

The trial centred on Clark's appointment of Charlotte-based Southeast Industrial Equipment Inc (SIE) in 2012 as an authorised dealer for seven locations covering metropolitan Charlotte, eastern North Carolina, all of South Carolina and the cities of Savannah and Augusta in Georgia.

At the time, SIE represented the Toyota, Aisle-Master, Hoist and Combilift brands and had a non-exclusive agreement with TMHU that allowed SIE to sell other forklift brands.

Clark brought the initial action, claiming Toyota "pressured, coerced and intimidated (SIE) ... into ending its relationship with Clark".

In the February trial, the jury found that Toyota wrongfully interfered with a contractual right between Clark and SIE; wrongfully interfered with a prospective economic advantage attained by Clark in its contract with SIE; coerced SIE into terminating its dealer relationship with Clark and thereby stopping the purchase of forklifts manufactured by Clark; and coerced SIE into ending its relationship with Clark by threatening to terminate SIE's Toyota dealership in Virginia.

However, the jury found that Toyota did not unlawfully coerce SIE into ending its relationship with Clark by unfairly demanding that SIE issue a retraction or denial of the Forkliftaction.com News article which reported that SIE had become a Clark dealer.

According to Clark's legal team, the latest judgement finds that Clark is entitled to recover attorneys' fees from Toyota. Toyota and Clark agreed on the amount of USD1.5 million in fees.

In addition, in the order of June 18th, the court determined that Clark was entitled to "pre-judgment interest at a rate of 8% from the date the suit commenced until the date of final judgment in the district court; this case was filed in 2012, so nearly three years' interest at 8% will be added," a spokesperson tells Forkliftaction.com News. "As of mid-June, this was something over USD700,000.

"The judge also confirmed that post-judgment interest would accrue from the date of final judgment in the district court."

The legal team representing Clark, Smith Moore Leatherwood, calculates that the total judgment in Clark's favour, not including any interest (pre-judgment or post-judgment) exceeds USD10.6 million "With pre-judgment interest accrued, it will exceed USD11.3 million, with post-judgment interest continuing to run.

"Needless to say, we and the client are gratified by the outcome. This is a significant victory for Clark Material Handling," the spokesperson adds.

Toyota had requested a new trial - at least on the issue of damages - "because the court made several legal and evidentiary errors at trial".

However, Judge Cogburn has rejected the call, saying "while the court recognises that the defendant disagrees with some of its rulings, the court does not find that a new trial is warranted".

Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A., Inc. has appealed the judgement.

"Toyota Material Handling USA, Inc. continues to deny liability. We respectfully disagree with the trial court's ruling as contrary to governing law, and have appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit," the company says in a statement.