{"id":149595,"date":"2020-06-29T10:35:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T14:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=149595"},"modified":"2020-06-29T15:00:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T19:00:29","slug":"gm-appeals-ruling-forcing-ceos-to-meet-and-resolve-dispute-judge-amends-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2020\/06\/gm-appeals-ruling-forcing-ceos-to-meet-and-resolve-dispute-judge-amends-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"GM Appeals Ruling Forcing CEOs to Meet and Resolve Dispute, Judge Amends Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Lawyers will now be able to “accompany” GM CEO Mary Barra to her July 1 virtual meeting with FCA CEO Mike Manley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(This story has been updated to include today’s decision from the appeals court.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The meeting is on hold \u2014 for now.<\/p>\n

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today stayed a lower court ruling that would have required General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Fiat Chrysler Chief Mike Manley to meet July 1 to resolve GM’s lawsuit against FCA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to provide sufficient time to consider the matters raised in GM\u2019s petition, and having considered the relevant factors, we conclude that a temporary stay is appropriate,\u201d the court said in a filing.<\/p>\n

GM said in a statement it looked forward to the appeals court\u2019s review and decision, reported Reuters. Meanwhile FCA issued a statement saying it still believes the suit is “meritless” and asked for the appeals court to assign the case to a different judge.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Judge orders GM, FCA CEOs to meet to resolve “waste of time” lawsuit.)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, GM asked a federal appeals court to set aside a lower court\u2019s order directing the the chief executive officers to meet \u2013 without lawyers \u2013 and settle a legal dispute in which GM claims FCA bribed it way to a competitive advantage in a key labor contract, the lower court judge amended his ruling.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Judge Paul Borman, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, amended his order forcing GM CEO Mary Barra and FCA Mike Manley to meet, allowing them to bring lawyers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
FCA CEO Mike Manley is still required to meet online with Barra, but FCA lawyers have still asked to dismiss the lawsuit altogether.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a letter to the Clerk of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the lawyer handling the case for GM, Paul Clement of Kirkland & Ellis, said the amended order is still defective and reiterated GM wants Borman removed from the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat order still requires the parties\u2019 CEOs (and not subordinate officers with full settlement authority) to meet in person by July 1, still requires the CEOs to personally \u201creport back\u201d concerning their settlement efforts and to do so on the public record, and is still impermissibly premised on the view that unrelated crises and past bankruptcies justify a radical departure from the normal order,\u201d Clement said in his letter.<\/p>\n

In a petition filed with the sixth circuit on Friday, GM lawyers had argued Borman\u2019s original order\u00a0is \u201cunprecedented\u201d and a\u00a0\u201cprofound abuse of the power and the critically important, but essentially limited, office of the federal judiciary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition filed by GM\/s lawyers attacking Borman\u2019s original order also maintained the judge overstepped his authority. \u201cIt is not within the power or properly limited office of an Article III judge charged with impartially adjudicating a federal cause of action Congress deemed worthy of judicial resources to label that action a \u2018distraction.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

(General Motors sues Fiat Chrysler, claims bribery of UAW cost it billions.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Lawyers further argued the judge cannot order the CEOs of two major companies \u201cpersonally, immediately, and without the aid of counsel to meet.\u201d They also noted Borman also couldn\u2019t further order them to report to the court on their efforts to resolve complex litigation that the court deemed a \u201cwaste of time and resources\u201d that could be better put to \u201cthis country\u2019s most pressing social justice and health issues,\u201d GM\u2019s petition said.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for FCA, as they are allowed to do under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, have asked Borman to dismiss the original lawsuit and will undoubtedly re-iterate its arguments in its briefs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lawyers maintain that Judge Paul Borman has overstepped his authority by ordering the CEOs to meet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GM basically claims it was harmed by FCA corrupt labor practices that helped FCA obtain benefits and advantages drove up GM costs and otherwise render it less competitive than FCA\u00a0\u00a0According to GM, the FCA conspired with certain UAW leaders in connection with 2015 collective bargaining agreement in an effort to GM and force a FCA\/GM merger by imposing more than a billion dollars in costs on GM.<\/p>\n

In addition, GM\u2019s complaint noted that\u00a0Alphons Iacobelli, a former FCA vice president of labor relations, who pled guilty to violating federal labor law two years ago, agreed that he and others at FCA made illegal payments as part of \u201ca corporate policy to buy good relationships with UAW officials,\u201d which they believed would lead to benefits, concessions, and advantages over GM in collective bargaining, GM\u2019s petition noted.<\/p>\n

FCA had no immediate comment on GM\u2019s appeal to the sixth circuit but it has contended since GM first filed the lawsuit back in November that it was \u201cwithout merit,\u201d and noted that Borman\u2019s original order directing Barra and Manley meeting by July 1 still stands.<\/p>\n

(FCA getting ready to ask court to dismiss GM lawsuit.)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The lawsuit, in part, is an outgrowth of a long running investigation in corruption with the United Auto Workers in which 14 people, including three FCA executive, 10 UAW officials and the widow of former UAW leader close to former FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne, have pled guilty to various federal criminal charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After General Motors asked a federal appeals court to set aside a lower court\u2019s order directing the the CEOs of GM and Fiat Chrysler to meet \u2013 without lawyers \u2013 and settle a legal dispute. Over the weekend, the judge amended the decision to allow lawyers, reports TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":132924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,11],"tags":[],"make":[51,58],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,150,151,123,131,299,191,243,138,132,125,124,139,148,128,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149595"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=149595"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=149595"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=149595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}