Source: http://openjurist.org/339/f3d/746/metro-motors-llc-v-nissan-motor-corporation-in-usa
Timestamp: 2015-04-28 18:34:18
Document Index: 399818422

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 80', '§ 80', '§ 80', '§ 80', '§ 80', '§ 80', '§ 80']

339 F3d 746 Metro Motors Llc v. Nissan Motor Corporation in Usa | OpenJurist
339 F. 3d 746 - Metro Motors Llc v. Nissan Motor Corporation in Usa	Home339 f3d 746 metro motors llc v. nissan motor corporation in usa
339 F3d 746 Metro Motors Llc v. Nissan Motor Corporation in Usa 339 F.3d 746
METRO MOTORS, doing business as Luther Nissan, LLC, Appellee/Cross-Appellant,v.NISSAN MOTOR CORPORATION IN U.S.A., Appellant/Cross-Appellee.Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association, Amicus on Behalf of Cross-Appellant.
Order Denying Petition for Rehearing and for Rehearing En Banc Denied: September 30, 2003*,**.
Kevin A. Russell, argued, Chicago, IL, for appellant.
William Lowell Killion, argued, Minneapolis, MN (Gregory R. Merz, Minneapolis, MN, on the brief), for appellee.
This is a dispute between a car dealership and a car manufacturer over the latter's attempt to enforce an exclusivity provision in the parties' contract, notwithstanding the disfavor such provisions have under Minnesota's Motor Vehicle Sale and Distribution Regulations (the Act), Minn. Stat. §§ 80E.01 — 80E.18. Nissan Motor Corporation, the manufacturer, appeals the district court's2 refusal to order specific performance of the exclusivity provision. Metro Motors, the dealer, cross-appeals the district court's refusal to hold exclusivity provisions unenforceable as a matter of law in Minnesota, and the denial of Metro's request for attorney fees. We affirm.
* In 1996, Metro signed a contract with Nissan to sell Nissan vehicles at a dealership in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. The agreement contained an exclusivity provision which prohibited Metro from "conduct[ing] any dealership operations for any other make or line of new or unused vehicles from the Dealership Facilities." In 1998, Metro breached the exclusivity provision and began servicing and selling new Kia vehicles at its Inver Grove Heights location. In 2000, Nissan tried to persuade Metro to stop selling Kia cars. Nissan asked Metro to sign an amendment to the original contract which would have provided that Metro's failure to sell only Nissan vehicles at the Inver Grove Heights location would constitute good cause for termination of the agreement.
Shortly thereafter, Metro brought this lawsuit claiming Nissan's conduct violated two provisions of the Act. The first provision makes it unlawful to require a dealer to "enter into any agreement with the manufacturer or to do any other act prejudicial to the new motor vehicle dealer by threatening to cancel a franchise or any contractual agreement existing between the dealer and the manufacturer." Minn. Stat. § 80E.12(e). The second prohibits a manufacturer from "during the franchise term, us[ing] any written instrument, agreement, or waiver, to attempt to nullify or modify any provision of this chapter." Minn.Stat. § 80E.135. Metro claimed Nissan's proposed amendment attempted to nullify that provision of the Act which provides "[t]he fact that the new motor vehicle dealer ... has established another make or line of new motor vehicle in the same dealership facilities as those of the manufacturer [does not] constitute good cause for the termination, cancellation, or nonrenewal of a franchise." Minn.Stat. § 80E.07, subd. 1(c).
Metro asked the district court to find Nissan in violation of the Act, to declare exclusivity provisions unenforceable in Minnesota, and to award attorney fees under section 80E.17 of the Act. Nissan counterclaimed asking the district court to declare that Metro breached the contract by selling Kia vehicles at the Inver Grove Heights location, and requesting specific performance (i.e., a court order requiring Metro to stop selling Kia vehicles).
On Metro's claims, the district court found Nissan in violation of the Act but refused to declare exclusivity provisions unenforceable in Minnesota. The district court also refused to award Metro attorney fees because Metro knowingly breached the contract's exclusivity provision. On Nissan's counterclaims, the district court declared Metro breached the contract, but refused to order Metro to stop selling Kia vehicles. The district court determined Nissan was not entitled to the equitable remedy of specific performance because Nissan had control over the terms of the franchise agreement and gave itself no effective means of enforcing the agreement's exclusivity provision.
Nissan appealed contending the district court misinterpreted the Act and abused its discretion by denying specific performance. Metro cross-appealed contending the district court should have declared exclusivity provisions unenforceable as a matter of law. Metro also contends the district court should have awarded it attorney fees based on Nissan's violation of the Act.
We first address Nissan's appeal and its claim the district court misinterpreted the Act in denying Nissan's request for specific performance. We review de novo the district court's interpretation of the Act, Walk v. Starkey Mach., Inc., 180 F.3d 937, 939 (8th Cir.1999), but review for abuse of discretion the district court's refusal to grant Nissan the equitable remedy of specific performance. Walser v. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A, Inc., 43 F.3d 396, 403 (8th Cir.1994). Specifically, Nissan contends the district court denied specific performance based on a flawed interpretation of Minn.Stat. § 80E.07, subd. 1(c). Nissan claims the district court interpreted that section of the Act as foreclosing, as a matter of law, the equitable remedy of specific performance for the breach of an exclusivity provision. We disagree.
In its treatment of Nissan's request for specific performance, the district court expressly rejected Metro's argument that § 80E.07 foreclosed the equitable remedy of specific performance as a matter of law. The district court held § 80E.07 subd. 1(c) "does not prohibit exclusivity terms in franchise agreements, it merely provides that the breach of such terms is not by itself good cause for termination of a franchise." Metro Motors, LLC v. Nissan Motor Corp., No. Civ. 00-2120,