Facts
- Fifth Third Bank (the plaintiff), a national banking association based in Ohio, entered into a Dealer Agreement with Tranquility Chevrolet, Inc. (the defendant), a California corporation, on October 19, 2020, to facilitate financing for automobile sales [lines="31-44"].
- From July to October 2021, Tranquility allegedly submitted eleven fraudulent loan applications to Fifth Third, with forged loan documents for vehicles that were not sold [lines="62-71"].
- Tranquility's owner, Brent Ian Smith, allegedly authorized these fraudulent actions, which were part of a broader pattern of misconduct [lines="74-75"].
- Fifth Third claims to have incurred over $530,000 in reliance on the forged documents from Tranquility [lines="79-80"].
- The defendants moved to dismiss the case due to improper venue or requested the action be transferred to California [lines="16-18"].
Issues
- Whether the court has proper venue to hear the case against Tranquility and its owner, given their connections to California rather than Ohio [lines="319-321"].
- Whether the case should be transferred to the Eastern District of California based on the convenience of the parties and witnesses and the interests of justice [lines="491-492"].
Holdings
- The court found that the defendants waived their personal jurisdiction defense, thus venue was appropriate in Ohio as Fifth Third is located there [lines="453-486"].
- The court granted the transfer of the case to the Eastern District of California for the convenience of parties and witnesses, as most events related to the case occurred in California [lines="620-622"].
OPINION
Case Information
*1 Case 1:24-cv-06287-LJL Document 41 Filed 09/17/24 Page 1 of 2 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
---------------------------------------------------------------------- X 09/17/2024
: ANDREW DELANEY, :
: Plaintiff, : : 24-cv-6287 (LJL) -v- : : ORDER HC2, INC., STEPHANOS ZANNIKOS, MICHAEL : JOHN ESKER NACCHIO, and TOYOTA MOTOR :
NORTH AMERICA, INC. :
: Defendants. X ----------------------------------------------------------------------
LEWIS J. LIMAN, United States District Judge:
Plaintiff Andrew Delaney moves for reconsideration of the Court’s order of September 13, 2024. Dkt. No. 38. The motion for reconsideration is DENIED.
“A motion for reconsideration should be granted only if the movant identifies ‘an intervening change of controlling law, the availability of new evidence, or the need to correct a clear error or prevent manifest injustice.’” Spin Master Ltd. v. 158 , 2020 WL 5350541, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 4, 2020) (quoting Kolel Beth Yechiel Mechil of Tartikov, Inc. v. YLL Irrevocable Tr. , 729 F.3d 99, 104 (2d Cir. 2013)); see also Shrader v. CSX Transp., Inc. , 70 F.3d 255, 257 (2d Cir. 1995) (“The standard for granting such a motion is strict, and reconsideration will generally be denied unless the moving party can point to controlling decisions or data that the court overlooked—matters, in other words, that might reasonably be expected to alter the conclusion reached by the court.”). Plaintiff has not identified any issue or law that the Court overlooked in its September 13, 2024, order or any clear error or manifest injustice committed by that order. His letter embraces and does not refute the absurdity identified in that order. See
Case 1:24-cv-06287-LJL Document 41 Filed 09/17/24 Page 2 of 2 Dkt. No. 38 at 2 (suggesting that TNMA might have had an obligation to respond to a superseded original complaint). Under his theory, he could have served the corrected amended complaint one day prior to the expiration of the 21 days after service of the original complaint and thereby truncated TMNA’s time to respond to one day. He also does not respond to the Court’s observation that, even if TNMA’s response was deemed untimely, the Court would vacate the entry of default for lack of willfulness, lack of prejudice, and meritorious defenses. This issue is concluded.
The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to close the motion at Dkt. No. 38. SO ORDERED.
Dated: September 17, 2024 __________________________________
New York, New York LEWIS J. LIMAN United States District Judge 2
