Fear and Greed Blog

Over the last two hours approximately 73 documents have been added to Chrysler's docket (and they're apparently still in court!).

I say "apparently still in court" because the Indiana Pensioners have filed a Motion for a Continuance of the Sale Hearing together with a Proposed Order for the Judge, should he allow the motion. Failing that, the Indiana Pensioners have filed a Motion to Strike the Last Minute Declarations together with a Proposed Order.

The motion for continuance is interesting reading. Apparently the Indiana Pensioners have been conducting an incredibly ambitious discovery process, having:

• taken 23 depositions between May 23rd and May 26th, most within 48 hours of the sale hearing;
• received over 87,000 documents totaling 385,000 pages from 39 separate discovery requests; and
• took two additional depositions on May 26th based on an incomplete review of the documents.

As of late Monday evening, May 25th, 2,308 documents totaling 26,000 pages had not yet been entered into the electronic database (which significantly increases the efficiency of the discovery process).

Interestingly:

• The Supplemental Declaration of Robert Manzo was not filed until after 10 PM on May 26th;
• The Declaration of James N. Chapman was filed between 12:30 AM and 3:00 AM on May 27th; and
• The Supplemental Declaration of Robert J. Nardelli was not filed until after 1:00 AM on May 27th.

The Indiana Pensioner's motion for a continuance is based on the incredibly tight timeframe imposed by the Court for discovery and that the Debtor was continuing to provide information even as the motion for Continuance was being prepared.

The motion to strike is based on the lack of time that the Indiana Pensioners had to review the late declarations.

Here is the Declaration of Owen C. Pell that supports both motions by the Pensioners.

On the other side, here is the opening statement by Corinne Ball on behalf of the Debtors in relation to the sale hearing. You will note that she continues to claim that the business enterprise value of Chrysler is melting away as these proceedings continue. This claim, the debtors assert, provides a good business reason to proceed with the 363(b) sale.

Apparently, the value of Chrysler is like an ice cube, and bankruptcy proceedings for Chrysler are like putting that ice cube in the middle of the Sahara Desert at noon!

I wonder if she was aware of the statements made by Chrysler personnel about how well Chrysler cars are continuing to sell (see here and here).

I don't envy Judge Gonzalez. He has had to read thousands (possibly tens of thousands) of pages of motions, declarations, contracts, etc. in relation to all aspects of the Chrysler bankruptcy - and many related to today's sales hearing. All of this is happening in a 27 day period!

We'll see what happens, but I doubt the continuance motion will be approved (particularly since I didn't see anything about a continuance in a search I did at 1:30 PM on Google's News search).

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