- Gotion Inc. is threatening to ask for monetary damages in its lawsuit against a Michigan township
- In a letter to an appeals court judge, the battery company said opposition made building its factory ‘impossible’
- The township, however, pointed to the state ending its contract to give the company $175 million and said the lawsuit should be dismissed
Gotion Inc. isn’t done battling the Mecosta County township that resisted the plans by the company with Chinese ties to build a massive electric vehicle battery factory in Michigan.
In a letter filed Tuesday in federal court, the company says it intends to seek “significant monetary damages” from Green Charter Township for creating “an impossible environment to advance the project.”
The letter comes four months after the Michigan Strategic Fund deemed the $2.4 billion project in default for lack of progress and announced it would seek to recover $50 million in taxpayer subsidies.
Gotion contends the township caused the inaction on the site — and that could be impossible for the company to ever build there.
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Trying to build would have been “futile,” wrote Gotion attorney K. Scott Hamilton of Dickinson Wright in Detroit.
The state “took advantage of Gotion’s plight” by issuing the default notice, he added, “which has only confirmed Gotion’s fear for the viability of the project.”
Hamilton continued: “It has been made abundantly clear to Gotion that the township and its supporters intend to fight Gotion tooth-and-nail to prevent Gotion from bringing its project to the township.”
The letter was filed as both Gotion and the Green Charter Township attorney responded to a US Court of Appeals question about whether their litigation — involving a lower court ruling that ordered the township to honor an August 2023 development deal — was now moot.
The project was announced to great fanfare in 2022, but became an issue in the presidential election because of Gotion’s ties to China.
Months after the project was announced, township officials authorized a plan to extend municipal water lines to pump 715,000 gallons of water a day into Gotion’s factory.
But those officials were ousted by local residents in 2023 and new township leaders rescinded the deal, saying the prior administration had not been authorized to make the agreement.
Gotion won a temporary injunction in the US District Court, saying the township had to honor the deal while the township appealed to a higher court.
Robby Dube, a Minneapolis-based attorney for the township, asked the appeals judge to end the injunction, and send the case back to be dismissed.
“The plant will not be built,” Dube wrote.
“This is the consequence of Gotion’s own inaction,” Dube added. “It obtained the preliminary objection it sought, yet, after over 18 months, has not requested the township take a single action.”
In the interim, Dube said, Gotion announced plans to expand its factory in Manteno, Illinois, “to replace the failed plant.”
Some Michigan lawmakers remain critical of the deal and how it was awarded through the now-defunded Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) Fund.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions here,” Rep. Tom Kunse, R-Clare, told the House subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments in October.
Of the subsidy, $125 million was not spent, but $50 million was given to The Right Place economic development group to aid Gotion.
Just over half of that was spent, the bulk of it on development land in the township that the state gave to Gotion.
Meanwhile, Green Charter Township has struggled to pay its legal bills, according to reports. Mecosta County has contributed $193,000 toward the township’s shortfall.
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