Mauro Motors Inc. v. Old Cargo LLC

10-3933-bk In re: Old Carco LLC UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. 1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals 2 for the Second Circuit, held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan 3 United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, in the City of 4 New York, on the 25th day of March, two thousand eleven. 5 6 PRESENT: DENNIS JACOBS, 7 Chief Judge, 8 GUIDO CALABRESI, 9 DENNY CHIN, 10 Circuit Judges. 11 12 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X 13 SCOTIA MOTORS INC., et al., 14 15 Movants-Appellants, 16 17 -v.- 10-3933-bk 18 19 OLD CARCO LLC, aka CHRYSLER LLC, aka 20 CHRYSLER ASPEN, aka CHRYSLER TOWN & 21 COUNTRY, aka CHRYSLER 300, aka 22 CHRYSLER SEBRING, aka CHRYSLER PT 23 CRUISER, aka DODGE, aka DODGE AVENGER, 24 aka DODGE CALIBER, aka DODGE 25 CHALLENGER, aka DODGE DAKOTA, aka 26 DODGE DURANGO, aka DODGE GRAND 27 CARAVAN, aka DODGE JOURNEY, aka DODGE 28 NITRO, aka DODGE RAM, aka DODGE 1 1 SPRINTER, aka DODGE VIPER, aka JEEP, 2 aka JEEP COMMANDER, aka JEEP COMPASS, 3 aka JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE, aka JEEP 4 LIBERTY, aka JEEP PATRIOT, aka JEEP 5 WRANGLER, aka MOPAR, aka PLYMOUTH, aka 6 DODGE CHARGER, 7 8 Debtor-Appellee. 9 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X 10 11 FOR APPELLANTS: Leo Donofrio 12 Stephen W. Pidgeon 13 Thomas Alan Holman 14 Pidgeon & Donofrio GP 15 Everett, WA 16 17 FOR APPELLEE: Brett J. Berlin 18 Jeffrey B. Ellman 19 Beth R. Heifetz 20 Kevyn Duane Orr 21 (Corinne Ball, on the brief) 22 Jones Day 23 New York, NY 24 25 Appeal from decision by the United States District 26 Court for the Southern District of New York (Hellerstein, 27 J.) affirming an order of the United States Bankruptcy Court 28 for the Southern District of New York (Gonzalez, C.J.) 29 denying Appellants’ motion for reconsideration. 30 31 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED 32 AND DECREED that the district court’s decision is AFFIRMED. 33 34 Appellants are automobile dealers whose dealership 35 contracts with Chrysler were terminated by Chrysler as part 36 of its bankruptcy and restructuring. They moved the 37 Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to 38 reconsider its decision to allow Chrysler to exclude these 39 contracts from the assets it sold to Fiat and to then reject 40 these contracts after the sale under 11 U.S.C. § 365. We 41 assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, 42 procedural history, and issues presented for review. 43 44 A motion to reconsider a judgment must be rejected if 45 “there was an opportunity to have the ground now relied upon 46 to set aside the judgment fully litigated in the original 2 1 action.” Leber-Krebs, Inc. v. Capital Records, 779 F.2d 2 895, 899 (2d Cir. 1985) (internal quotation marks omitted). 3 Appellants present no evidence or arguments in this 4 collateral attack that could not have been presented in a 5 timely appeal from the bankruptcy court’s original decision. 6 Having failed to appeal from that decision, Appellants may 7 not now attack it collaterally absent newly discovered 8 evidence of fraud on the court. No such evidence has been 9 presented, so Appellants’ motion to reconsider was properly 10 denied. 11 12 As to the merits of Appellants’ claims, they are 13 utterly frivolous. We reject these claims on the merits for 14 substantially the same reasons set forth by the district 15 court below. 16 17 The bankruptcy court and the district court correctly 18 concluded that there was no fraud on the court. As a 19 result, we hereby AFFIRM the district court’s decision 20 affirming the bankruptcy court’s denial of Appellants’ 21 motion to reconsider. 22 23 FOR THE COURT: 24 CATHERINE O’HAGAN WOLFE, CLERK 25 26 3