Opinion ID: 577164
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Challenges to the Allocation Plan

Text: 93 The Heerey Group lastly challenges the district court's approval of the Allocation Plan. We review the district court's approval of the Allocation Plan for an abuse of discretion. Officers for Justice, 688 F.2d at 625-626. 94 The Heerey Group's contentions concerning the Allocation Plan do not directly challenge the district court's conclusion that the Allocation Plan was fair, reasonable, and adequate. Rather, the Heerey Group in essence is attempting to reargue the issues of whether Chemical Bank sacrificed its members' interests in favor of those Bondholders who were also MDL 551 Class Members and whether its members acquired the fraud and tort claims of their predecessor Bondholders. We find these challenges to be meritless. As we have held above, Chemical Bank advanced the theory of recovery most critical to the interests of the Heerey Group's members, a theory that was contrary to the interests of and opposed by the MDL 551 Class Members. Although it was unsuccessful in bringing this claim, the record supports the district court's finding that Chemical Bank opposed this result both before and after it was reached. Similarly, the district court's conclusion that late-purchasing Bondholders did not receive an automatic assignment of the fraud and tort claims of their predecessor Bondholders was based on governing Ninth Circuit authority. 95 In In re Nucorp Energy Sec. Litig., 772 F.2d 1486 (9th Cir.1985), we held that purchasers of securities did not receive an automatic assignment of the fraud and tort claims of their predecessors under either federal or state law. Id. at 1490, 1492-93. Although the Heerey Group contends that this case was wrongly decided and incorrectly interpreted New York state law, it is well established that we may reconsider earlier Ninth Circuit precedent only by en banc review or after an intervening Supreme Court decision. See Landreth v. C.I.R., 859 F.2d 643, 648 (9th Cir.1988). Accordingly, for the reasons set forth above, we reject the Heerey Group's challenges to the Allocation Plan.