General Motors Co. is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review its racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, now known as Stellantis NV, according to a filing this month with the high court.
GM in August lost its appeal in the case in August when the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a federal judge’s decision to throw out the lawsuit originally filed in 2019.
“We are seeking Supreme Court review of the Sixth Circuit’s decision that would allow FCA to escape liability under the federal racketeering statute for the harm it inflicted on GM through its admitted corruption,” GM spokesperson Maria Raynal said in a statement.
GM sued its crosstown rival alleging FCA’s late CEO Sergio Marchionne orchestrated a multimillion-dollar racketeering conspiracy that used bribes to corrupt three rounds of bargaining with the United Auto Workers in order to harm GM. The Detroit automaker has said it lost “billions” as a result of the bribery conspiracy to make GM’s labor costs high during negotiations with the UAW.
In its filing to the Supreme Court, the Detroit automaker contends FCA “directly harmed GM, both by ensuring that GM would consistently be denied concessions the UAW gave to FCA, and by corrupting the pattern-bargaining process to force GM to shoulder more than $1 billion in labor costs above what it would have expended absent FCA’s racketeering. It also became increasingly apparent that imposing these massive costs on GM was no accident or unintended byproduct, but rather was an intended goal of FCA’s scheme to use bribery and corruption to injure a rival and strong-arm GM into a merger.”
FCA/Stellantis has denied GM’s claims. Lawyers for the automaker asked the justices for an extension to reply to GM’s petition into March, citing “the press of other matters.” That request was granted.
In a statement, Stellantis spokesperson Shawn Morgan said: “As we have said from the date this lawsuit was filed, it is meritless and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously and pursue all available remedies in response to this groundless lawsuit.”
Staff writer Breana Noble contributed.