Civil Procedure — temporary restraining orders

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Civil Procedure — temporary restraining orders

Where the defendant is attempting to relitigate issues already decided by the district court, in a foreign country, a temporary restraining order against the foreign litigation was proper.

“Even if we had some sense that international comity could become an issue, our court ordinarily allows an injunction against litigating in a foreign forum ‘upon a finding that letting the two suits proceed would be gratuitously duplicative, or as the cases sometimes say vexatious and oppressive.’ Allendale, 10 F.3d at 431 (internal quotations omitted). DFS argues that the district court’s conclusion that its prosecution of the DFS Greek action was ‘vexatious and oppressive’ was clearly erroneous, but we disagree. As the district court wrote in its February 7 decision, DFS’s Greek action was ‘a blatant attempt by defendant to relitigate issues that [the court had] already decided, and it has resulted in an injunction in Greece that directly contradicts this court’s orders.’ DFS made a conscious decision to conceal its Greek action from the district court. It then failed to disclose to the Greek court that U.S. proceedings were pending or that the TRO had been issued. It proceeded to prosecute the very issues that were being actively litigated in the U.S. district court, specifically DFS’s rights and obligations under the Harley- Davidson/Elmec Agreement. Its chosen strategy was a direct threat to the jurisdiction of the district court and exposed Harley-Davidson to duplicative litigation and the possibility of inconsistent rulings. We see no error in the district court’s determination that an injunction prohibiting DFS from prosecuting its action in Greece was appropriate under these circumstances, and we affirm the district court’s February 7 preliminary anti-suit injunction order.”

Affirmed.

11-3618, 11-3838 & 12-1280 H-D Michigan, LLC, v. Hellenic duty Free Shops, S.A.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Adelman, J., Hamilton, J.