Jefferies Strategic Investments, LLC v. Weiss

Background

Jefferies Strategic Investments, LLC and Leucadia Asset Management Holdings LLC moved under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a) to correct the judgment entered after the court’s March 12, 2025 decision. That earlier decision granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and denied George Weiss’s motion for summary judgment, but directed the Clerk to enter final judgment and tax costs without stating the exact amount owed or the applicable interest.

The plaintiffs requested a final judgment for a specific sum and asked the court to quantify prejudgment interest. The underlying agreements provided for prejudgment interest at the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate plus two percent, compounded monthly, until full payment. The court determined that this contractual rate governed instead of the statutory New York rate. The plaintiffs submitted calculations in a spreadsheet. Weiss offered a conclusory denial; the court also found that the plaintiffs satisfactorily explained a discrepancy he identified.

Rule 60(a) Analysis

Rule 60(a) allows a court to correct a clerical mistake or an omission in a judgment when the correction reflects the decision the court actually made. It does not allow the court to change the original legal or factual result. The court concluded that specifying the judgment amount and interest implemented its intended result and was therefore an appropriate correction.

The court also rejected Weiss’s argument that entering judgment was premature because a bankruptcy proceeding concerning his companies was pending. Relying on the principle that bankruptcy does not modify a non-debtor guarantor’s liability, the court denied his request to stay the proceedings again.

Disposition

Judge Hellerstein granted the plaintiffs’ motion to correct the judgment. The court directed the Clerk to enter final judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and against Weiss for $113,493,250.00, a sum that included the guaranteed principal and prejudgment interest. The judgment also includes post-judgment interest at the weekly average one-year constant-maturity Treasury yield published for the calendar week preceding the judgment, as provided by 28 U.S.C. § 1961(a). The Clerk was directed to terminate ECF No. 45.