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Fiat Chrysler's motion to dismiss GM's civil racketeering
lawsuit was expected. The company has said GM's lawsuit is
baseless and aimed at disrupting the Italian-American
automaker's proposed merger with France's Peugeot SA <PEUP.PA>.
GM general counsel Craig Glidden told reporters in November the
FCA-PSA merger had nothing to do with GM's legal action.
Fiat Chrysler's arguments were filed on Friday evening in U.S.
District Court in Detroit.
In response, GM said it remained confident in the legal
underpinnings of its case and will respond in court.
"We are confident in the legal and factual underpinnings of our
case, which have already been documented in part through the
guilty pleas and admissions of FCA executives made in connection
with the government's ongoing criminal investigation", GM said
in a statement.
GM sued Fiat Chrysler in November charging its rival with
bribing officials of the United Auto Workers union in order to
gain advantages in 2009 and 2015 labor contracts and have the
UAW withhold those terms from GM. Fiat Chrysler's now deceased
Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne sat "at the center" of the
schemes, GM charged in its lawsuit.
In its response Friday, Fiat Chrysler rejected GM's claim that
Marchionne tried to force a merger between GM and FCA by
agreeing to labor contracts that favored the UAW.
GM failed to show "why Mr. Marchionne would want to saddle FCA
and GM with unfavorable CBAs (collective bargaining agreements)
if his ultimate goal was to run the merged company (presumably
on a profitable basis)."
GM's accusations relied in part on revelations from an active
federal criminal investigation of corruption within the UAW.
That investigation began at Fiat Chrysler but has since spread
to past and present UAW officials at GM.
In its motion on Friday, Fiat Chrysler said GM's lawsuit was
"fatally flawed" for several reasons.
The lawsuit was filed after a four-year statute of limitations
had expired, Fiat Chrysler argued. GM is not a direct victim of
wrongdoing by FCA executives or UAW officials related to labor
contracts, and so cannot bring a RICO action, FCA argued in its
motion.
The UAW is such a large organization, "the notion that FCA
seized control of the UAW by virtue of the alleged prohibited
payments is implausible on its face," the FCA brief stated.
Further, Fiat Chrysler argued that GM's allegations about
corrupt contract negotiations should be heard by the National
Labor Relations Board, not by a federal court.
(Reporting by Joe White; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh;
Editing by Sandra Maler, Diane Craft and Grant McCool)
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