⁍ Judge Borman called GM’s multibillion-dollar racketeering suit against Fiat Chrysler ‘a waste of time and resources’ and a ‘huge legal distraction’
The automaker seems to be hoping, based on a new brief at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, that an intemperate (and eventually overturned) June 23 order will help persuade the appeals court that the trial judge was ‘patently wrong’ when he dismissed GM’s casein July.

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⁍ GM’s suit is rooted in a three-year Justice Department investigation of a bribery scheme involving Fiat executives and UAW officials.

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– General Motors may have lost its lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler over alleged bribery, but it’s not giving up on the case just yet. On Tuesday, GM filed a brief with the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to reinstate the suit, Reuters reports. The case stems from a three-year Justice Department investigation into alleged bribery between Fiat executives and United Auto Workers officials. GM says it was a direct victim of the bribery conspiracy because Fiat’s payoffs to UAW officials were designed to raise GM’s labor costs and pressure GM to acquiesce to a merger with Fiat. Fiat has argued that GM didn’t prove it was a direct victim of the bribery conspiracy, and that GM’s own theories portray it as an indirect victim of a conspiracy that primarily hurt UAW members. In June, US District Judge Paul Borman dismissed GM’s suit against Fiat, calling it “a waste of time and resources” and a “huge legal distraction.” In Tuesday’s brief, GM argues Borman’s June 23 order to the CEOs of GM and Fiat to “reach a sensible resolution of this huge legal distraction” was an abuse of discretion. The appeals court stayed Borman’s order on June 29 and granted mandamus on July 6, but the 6th Circuit refused to disqualify Borman from the case.