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A status hearing was held Tuesday at the Kankakee County Courthouse on the ongoing civil case of the Concerned Citizens of Manteno vs. Transform Manteno LLC, which is the Gotion lithium battery manufacturer, and the Village of Manteno.
During the hearing, Circuit Judge Lindsay Parkhurst continued the case for 90 days to give both sides time to respond and reply on the motion to dismiss.
The Concerned Citizens of Manteno, the plaintiffs, filed suit in December 2023 regarding Manteno’s rezoning of the then-proposed lithium battery factory at the former Kmart distribution center at 333 S. Spruce St. in Manteno for Gotion, a Chinese manufacturer. Transform Manteno LLC (Gotion) and the Village of Manteno are the defendants.
On Sept. 30, 2024, Judge Parkhurst ruled in favor of the defendants to dismiss the case without prejudice in four of the five counts in Kankakee Circuit Court, according to court documents. By ruling without prejudice the plaintiffs (Concerned Citizens) were able to file an amended complaint within 45 days.
The defendants then filed again to dismiss the amended case on Dec. 30, 2024. Both the Village of Manteno and Gotion filed separate motions to dismiss the case.
Joe Cainkar, the attorney for the village of Manteno, and Daria Porter, the attorney representing Gotion, were in court Tuesday for a status hearing. Representing the plaintiffs in court were David Bergdahl and Robby Dube, via Zoom.
“We would like 45 days to respond because there’s two motions to dismiss,” Dube asked Parkhurst. “And if possible we’d like to do a consolidated opposition like we did last time.”
Parkhurst granted the plaintiffs 45 days to respond and the consolidated opposition to the motions to dismiss.
“You can file one and deal with both arguments, but they’ve got to be separated out [for each issue],” she said.
The defendants will then have 45 days to reply. Parkhurst set the next hearing on motion to dismiss for 10 a.m. April 28.
“Both of us filed our respective motions to dismiss again for the second amended complaint,” said Cainkar of the village and Gotion’s filings on Dec. 30.
Both sides agreed 45 days was enough time to file their motions on the dismissal.
The property was rezoned from light industrial to heavy industrial in November 2023, which the plaintiffs argued was against the village’s municipal code.
https://daily-journal.com/news/local/gotion-civil-case-continued-for-90-days/article_79a5f516-d2a7-11ef-85ae-9f0cc7f4b5c4.html