United States Second Circuit

District Court order authorizing the sale of substantially all of Chrysler LLC's assets to New CarCo Acquisition LLC is affirmed where: 1) the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in approving the sale as the sale did not constitute an impermissible sub rosa plan and prevented further, unnecessary losses; 2) the court properly held that although the plaintiffs did not consent to the sale order's release of all liens on Chrysler's assets, consent was validly provided by the collateral trustee, who had authority to act on behalf of all first-lien credit holders; 3) the plaintiffs lack standing to raise the issue of whether the Secretary of the Treasury exceeded his statutory authority by using TARP money to finance the sale of Chrysler-s assets as they cannot demonstrate that they have suffered an injury in fact; and 4) arguments advanced by present and future tort claimants against the portion of the sale order extinguishing all existing and future claims against New Chrysler are rejected.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/05/2009
• Published 08/05/2009

Judges

• DENNIS JACOBS, Chief Judge:, Before:  JACOBS, Chief Judge, KEARSE and SACK, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Glenn M. Kurtz, Thomas E. Lauria (Owen C. Pell, Karen M. Asner, on the brief), White & Case LLP, New York, NY, for Objectors-Appellants Indiana State Police Pension Trust et al., Nancy Winkelman, (M. Christine Carty, Barry E. Bressler, Richard A. Barkasy, on the brief) Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, New York, N.Y. and Philadelphia, PA, for Objector-Appellant The Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer-Victims of Chrysler LLC., Adina H. Rosenbaum, (Allison M. Zieve, on the brief), Public Citizen Litigation Group, Washington, D.C., and Elizabeth J. Cabraser (Robert J. Nelson, Scott P. Nealey, on the brief) Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, San Francisco, CA, and Harley E. Riedel (Edward J. Peterson, on the brief) Stichter, Riedel, Blain & Prosser, P.A., Tampa, FL, for Objectors-Appellants William Lovitz et al., Sander L. Esserman (Robert T. Brousseau, Jo E. Hartwick, Cliff I. Taylor, on the brief) Stutzman, Bromberg, Esserman & Plifka, PC, Dallas, TX, and Alan R. Brayton (Christina Skubic, on the brief) Brayton Purcell LLP, Novato, CA, for Objector-Appellant Patricia Pascale., Joan Pilver, Assistant Attorney General, (Matthew F. Fitzsimmons, on the brief) for Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, Hartford, CT, for Amicus Curiae State of Connecticut., Roger Netzer, (Lisa D. Bentley, Emma-Ann Deacon, on the brief) Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, New York, NY, and Robert G. Zack, Chief Legal Officer, Oppenheimer Senior Floating Rate Fund and Oppenheimer Master Loan Fund, LLC, New York, NY, for Amici Curiae Oppenheimer Senior Floating Rate Fund and Oppenheimer Master Loan Fund, LLC.


• For Appellees:
  
• Thomas F. Cullen, (Corinne Ball, Steven C. Bennett, Todd R. Geremia, Veerle Roovers, on the brief), Jones Day, New York, N.Y. and Washington, D.C., for Debtors-Appellees Chrysler LLC et al., Deborah M. Buell, (James L. Bromley, Luke A. Barefoot, Kimberly C. Spiering, James Croft, on the brief), Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, New York, NY, for Appellee International Union of United Automobile Aerospace and Agricultural Workers of America., Steven L. Holley (John L. Warden, Laurent S. Wiesel, on the brief) Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, New York, NY, for Appellees Fiat S.p.A. and New CarCo Acquisition LLC., Martin J. Bienenstock (Judy G.Z. Liu, on the brief) Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, New York, NY, for Appellee Chrysler Financial Services Americas LLC., Kenneth H. Eckstein, (Jeffrey S. Trachtman, Thomas Moers Mayer, on the brief) Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, New York, NY, for Appellee The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors., Jeannette A. Vargas, Assistant United States Attorney, (Tara LaMorte, Li Yu, David S. Jones, on the brief) for Lev L. Dassin, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY, and John Rapisardi, Of Counsel to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, New York, NY, for Appellee United States of America., Michael J. Edelman, Vedder Price P.C., New York, NY, for Appellee Export Development Canada.