Liebherr drops lawsuit accusing Newport News workers, Chinese of stealing truck designs

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The Daily Press / May 19, 2015

Liebherr USA has dropped — at least for now — most of a major lawsuit accusing former workers at its Newport News manufacturing plant of conspiring with Chinese companies and others to rip off Liebherr truck designs.

Liebherr's attorneys, with the Norfolk law firm Willcox & Savage, have told Newport News Circuit Court Judge Timothy S. Fisher that they will "nonsuit" the case against most defendants. That's a legal mechanism that allows the claims to be dropped now, but resurrected if it's refiled within six months.

The motion avoids an immediate trial in the case.

High-priced lawyers have spent thousands of hours preparing for a trial that was to begin July 27 and last several weeks. With motions, depositions and exhibits, the original 2011 lawsuit contains several boxes of documents at the courthouse.

Brett A. Spain, the lawyer who filed Liebherr's motion for the nonsuit, could not immediately be reached for comment on the reason for the request.

But George H. Bowles, an attorney with Williams Mullen who is representing one of the defendant Chinese manufacturing groups, said Liebherr's lawyers have explained in part that they wanted to add another defendant to the case.

Fisher had previously told lawyers from both sides that he would reject any motions to delay the trial by way of a "continuance" request. But plaintiffs have the absolute right to nonsuit a case one time during litigation without a judge standing in the way.

A hearing will be held June 1 for the final wording of the nonsuit order, as well as to consider a "default judgment" against China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., a Chinese company that has recently elected not to defend itself in the case.

Under the legal rules for a nonsuit, Liebherr will have six months to refile the lawsuit against the remaining defendants, unless the statute of limitations hasn't yet expired. The case will be dismissed if it's not refiled on time.

Liebherr USA is a division of a Switzerland-based manufacturing group, Liebherr-International AG, founded in 1949. Liebherr mining trucks — built at a Newport News manufacturing plant off Interstate 664 — stand 29 feet tall and have a carrying capacity of 400 tons.

That dwarfs a normal dump truck, which stands about 10 feet tall and has a 40-ton payload, or only a tenth the capacity of the Liebherr trucks.

In the 2010 lawsuit, Liebherr Mining & Construction Equipment accused six former workers at the Newport News factory of conspiring to steal thousands of sensitive documents from the plant.

Liebherr's suit also accused a Detroit engineering firm, Detroit Heavy Truck Engineering, of serving as a conduit to Chinese companies, and two Chinese manufacturing partnerships, accusing them of imitating a Liebherr diesel truck with a 400-ton payload.

The complaint asserts that the documents — from truck designs to vendor information to factory layouts — allowed the Chinese firms to build the trucks "in a fraction of the time, at a fraction of the cost, and with a fraction of the manpower as could be accomplished by lawful means."

If the theft isn't reversed, Liebherr contends, "American manufacturing jobs will be lost" to companies that have ripped off technology and processes that took decades and millions of dollars to develop.

All six workers — as well as the Detroit firm and the Chinese companies — have denied the allegations against them. The original defendant worker died about a year ago.

Related reading: http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/39510-liebherr-accusing-workers-chinese-companies-of-copying-mining-truck/?hl=liebherr

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FBI Investigates Liebherr Stolen Truck Designs Lawsuit

Construction Equipment / June 4, 2015

The FBI’s Detroit, Mich., office filed a request for 32 documents in the 2011 Liebherr copycat lawsuit. The request indicates the FBI may be exploring criminal charges, reports the Daily Press.

Prior to the FBI’s request for documents, Liebherr dropped its civil lawsuit against Detroit Heavy Trucking (DHT). The lawsuit accused DHT of stealing, and then distributing truck designs to Chinese firms to imitate Liebherr’s diesel mining truck with a 400-ton payload.

FBI Special Agent Aaron Steketee, who requested the court documents from the FBI's Detroit office, did not return phone calls or emails this week.

Additionally, David Porter, a press spokesman with the FBI's Detroit office, also declined to explain the request.