CIT Denies Stay Bid in EAPA Case Over Pending Appeal in Related Scope Proceeding

The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 6 order denied defendant-intervenor Endura Products' motion for a stay of proceedings in an Enforce and Protect Act case brought by Columbia Aluminum Products, pending the resolution of a scope proceeding at the trade court. Judge Timothy Stanceu said that the stay motion failed to show that it would serve the twin objectives of "fairness to the litigants and judicial economy."

The case concerns the EAPA investigation in which CBP found that Columbia was evading the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China by way of Vietnam. Previously in the case, the trade court denied the U.S. motion for a remand and ordered that briefing be resumed on the plaintiff's and defendant-intervenor's motions for judgment. Following this, Endura filed for a stay, asking the court to halt proceedings until it can appeal a separate CIT ruling in which the court upheld Commerce's decision to exclude Columbia's door thresholds from the scope of the AD/CVD orders (see 2212190051).

Columbia argued that a stay would not preserve resources and in fact would be "prejudicial" since it would allow the evasion decision against Columbia to stand despite Commerce's finding that the imports at issue are outside the scope of the orders.

"Columbia adds that Endura has failed to demonstrate that denying a stay would cause it hardship or inequity, and the court agrees with this view," the opinion said. "Endura has not convinced the court that continuing to participate in this litigation on the current schedule, either in its capacity as a plaintiff or as a defendant-intervenor, will cause it harm in any appreciable way that could justify interrupting these proceedings pending its pursuit of an appeal in related litigation."

(Columbia Aluminum Products v. United States, Slip Op. 23-12, CIT Consol. # 19-00185, dated 02/06/23, Judge Timothy Stanceu. Attorneys: Jeremy Dutra of Squire Patton for plaintiff Columbia Aluminum Products; Alexander Vanderweide for defendant U.S. government; Robert DeFrancesco of Wiley Rein for defendant-intervenor Endura Products)