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U.S. appeals court rules for GM in Spyker's Saab sale lawsuit

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(Reuters) — General Motors Co. persuaded a federal appeals court to uphold the dismissal of a $3 billion lawsuit in which Spyker N.V. accused it of derailing a plan to sell the Swedish automaker Saab to a Chinese company.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Friday said Spyker failed to show GM intentionally interfered with the Dutch company’s effort to sell Saab to Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co., leading to Saab’s bankruptcy.

GM had sold a majority of Saab to Spyker in 2010. As part of that sale, it licensed Saab to build vehicles using the Detroit-based automaker’s intellectual property, and retained a right to end the license if Saab were sold without its consent.

Spyker said it was in sale talks with Youngman in December 2011 when a GM spokesman made statements suggesting that consent would not be provided, and that a sale might hurt GM. Youngman said it decided to back out “due to GM’s position.”

Writing for a three-judge 6th Circuit panel, Circuit Judge Eugene Siler said GM’s statements were not malicious, and that it had “legitimate business concerns” about the sale, including over who would benefit from Saab’s use of its technology.

Judge Siler also called Spyker’s claim “fatally flawed” because it assumed that GM misinterpreted the license agreement, meaning the spokesman’s statements “would have at most amounted to a mistake.”

A lawyer for Spyker had no immediate comment. GM spokesman Dave Roman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Friday’s decision upheld a June 2013 ruling by U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain in Flint, Michigan.

Saab’s assets were bought out of bankruptcy in 2012 by China’s National Electric Vehicle Sweden.

NEVS stopped building cars in May because of a lack of money, and in August won creditor protection in Sweden so it could seek new funds.

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