Class Action

Confidential Sources Still Alive & Kicking

Posted on March 18, 2008
What's that? You thought Tellabs banned confidential witnesses? Well, let's not get carried away here, as there's certainly at least two ways to read that opinion. Of course, after the 7th Circuit decided Higginbotham v. Baxter, it was beginning to look like you might actually be right...

No Mondays Puh-leeze

Posted on March 16, 2008
Attorneys who voluntarily set Monday deadlines are just simply no fun. I mean, you get to pick the days, so why kill a future weekend? You know all the work gets done at the last minute, so nix those Mondays the next time your curmudgeon opposing counsel tries to get you to agree to one...

Reimbursement Denied

Posted on November 13, 2007
Now this is entertainment (at least to me it is). And if you're a securities class action lawyer that's a word that might not enter your daily routine all that often. In the Motorola securities class action, Dr. Antonio Pagnamenta (Professor of Physics, emeritus at UIC), wrote a letter to the court which says (along with my annotations in Nugget green italics below of course):Your Honorable Wise, and Most Hopefully Generous Judge Pallmeyer:[A]s a member of the Class, I have carefully considered the entire situation so please don't waste your time repeating my extensive work, and then agreed to be a witness out of conviction that this was the right thing to do...

The Look is Back

Posted on November 12, 2007
I promise an article tomorrow, so in the meantime let me tell you that although the voting isn't closed yet it looks like the Acquirelaw? Nugget will be be returning to its original color scheme. Even my long-time good friend and Super-Nugget fan (he is a top-notch securities class action investigator by the way if you are looking for one) Wolf at Worms & Hirsch told me straight up that the dark color scheme is one of the worst designs he has ever seen...

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The Nugget Lives

Posted on November 07, 2007
Hey, remember the Nugget? Yes, I?ve been gone for a while, but I?m back now. And you might notice I?ve got a shiny new name. It?s the Acquirelaw? Nugget now instead of the PSLRA Nugget, but nothing else is going to change so don?t get yourself all upset...

New Service for Securities Class Action Researchers

Posted on February 21, 2007
Pssst? here?s a tip for you Nugget subscribers who just happen to be securities class action researchers. If your dream is to be able to word-search thousands of unpublished (and published) securities class action orders, opinions, and even minute entries check out the new service Acquirelaw? at www...

The Case that Just Won?t Die

Posted on February 08, 2007
So let?s see, back in 1999, the Judge approved the settlement of the In re Paracelus securities class action, and entered final judgment. So why in the world are we reading a Memorandum Opinion issued in the case eight years later, you might ask? Well, it seems the settlement distribution process ?took years,? with ?lost checks,? and trying to ?find claimants who were no longer at the addresses that had been provided...

Top Brass

Posted on November 13, 2006
Plaintiffs can declare victory on the motion to dismiss the St. Paul Travelers securities class action, with Judge John R. Tunheim (D. Minn.) holding that ?the facts alleged in the complaint, when taken as a whole, strongly suggest that the company's senior executives were aware that the financial statements issued during the class period were false or misleading when made...

Cut and Paste Nightmare

Posted on November 09, 2006
You know it?s not going to turn out well for Plaintiffs when the Court says ?at this juncture, the Court notes with great concern that Plaintiff includes the following as footnote 46 in its Opposition to Defendants' Motion to Dismiss.? What was the footnote, you ask? Well, here it is, and it seems fine, right??Defendant Warren signed the Form 10-Qs filed during the Class Period...

Dura No Help to Sears

Posted on November 08, 2006
The Sears securities class action was filed in 2003, but we?re still dealing with motions to dismiss. The third round of them actually. This time, it?s all about (our old friend) loss causation, with Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer (N.D. Ill.) taking on the Defendants? Dura arguments -- and pretty much shooting them all down...

Picture This

Posted on November 07, 2006
Well, there goes the Eastman Kodak securities class action, and yes I mean with prejudice. Why? Because Judge Michael A. Telesca (W.D.N.Y.) says ?that Kodak's warnings not only alerted investors of potential problems with changes in Kodak's products, but also informed investors that the company was then currently facing the very problems identified in the Complaint...

Try and Try Again -- and You Still Won't Succeed

Posted on November 02, 2006
You may remember the article I wrote back in March about the Invision Technologies securities class action. That article, entitled Try Try Again, featured Judge Martin J. Jenkins (N.D. Cal.) gleefully (OK, I added the gleefully part) tossing the case...

Trex Chilled

Posted on November 01, 2006
Looks like Plaintiffs didn?t fare too well in the Trex securities class action. Reading the opinion, it seemed as if Judge Glen E. Conrad (W.D. Va.) (who was appointed a U.S. Magistrate Judge in 1976 at age 27, and elevated to Article III status in 2003) rejected their complaint on nearly every point imaginable, as he concluded ?that the facts and circumstances alleged in this case are not such as to support a departure from the general rule that puffing and forward looking statements do not constitute misstatements or omissions of material facts for purposes of the PSLRA...

Objectors Rebuffed

Posted on October 25, 2006
So after "four years of vigorous litigation and two weeks of jury trial, the parties in" the AT&T securities class action settled the case for $ 100 million." Sounds pretty darn good, right? Not to certain objectors. But it looks like they pushed Judge Garrett E...

Judge Ponders PayDay

Posted on October 22, 2006
OK, the Nugget has been AWOL for a bit, but that?s nothing compared to how long the Cabletron securities class action has been pending. You see, as Judge William E. Smith (D. R.I.) explains, ?the case, approaching its tenth year in the judicial system, has traveled from New Hampshire to Rhode Island, through various district judges' chambers, to the Court of Appeals and back, finally landing with this writer in late 2002...

Auditor Can't Escape ANR Action

Posted on September 21, 2006
KPMG Bermuda has lost it?s bid to be dismissed from the ANR securities class action. Senior Judge Ellen Bree Burns (D. Conn.) (pictured left) evaluated the audit firm?s alleged knowledge and intent, holding that ?repeated restatements can? raise an inference of scienter...

Shotgun City

Posted on September 19, 2006
The Eleventh Circuit has ruled in the First Horizon securities class action. But before we get to that, it helps to know that before the case got to the Court of Appeals, the District Judge (after throwing out Plaintiffs? amended complaint), told Plaintiffs that if they wanted to file a motion to amend, they?d have to pay all of Defendants costs and fees associated with the motion to dismiss...

How Do You Like Us in Bold?

Posted on September 11, 2006
Having been dismissed once back in February 2006, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel (N.D. Cal.) (pictured) gave Plaintiffs in the iPass securities class action another chance. So what did they do? Well, I?m not sure what might have gone wrong, but Judge Patel says ?Plaintiffs have merely changed the typeface in their amended complaint...

Posner Prose

Posted on September 07, 2006
Classic Judge Posner. Just classic. I never get tired of reading his opinions, and believe you me I get tired of many of them quick. So, listen to this from yesterday?s Seventh Circuit opinion in the AT&T/Georgeson class action. You see, as he puts it, ?after you buy a car and drive away with your new possession, much can happen to affect the value of your purchase...

Let the Money Do the Monitoring

Posted on September 05, 2006
Judge William J. Haynes, Jr. (M.D. Tenn.) (pictured here during his 2004 Senate confirmation hearing) says that "to be sure, the plaintiff with the larger numeric loss is not automatically the plaintiff with the ?largest financial interest?.? But ?as to the Peoria Fund's various arguments? in the American Service Group securities class action, he reminded everyone that ?it must be remembered that ?[t]he manifest intent of the (PSLRA) is determining the Plaintiff most capable of pursuing the action and representing the interests of the class,?? and that ?this standard has been described as "let the money do the monitoring...

Two Little Birds, One Big Stone

Posted on August 31, 2006
Judge Lance M. Africk (E.D. La.) (George W., Class of ?02) combined his rulings on the motions to dismiss the US Unwired securities class action and the derivative case. You see, after tossing the derivative case on a standing issue, it all came down to safe harbor and loss causation, with Judge Africk first finding that ?beyond the blanket assertion by plaintiff that defendants knew that these statements were false when they were made, the Court can find no other suggestions of this alleged fraud...

Waiting Game

Posted on August 29, 2006
No new securities class action decisions came out over the past two days, so I'm just waiting on one. I'm also waiting on Ernesto, so if there's no posts later this week it's because there's no power where I live in Boca Raton, South Florida. Looks like it's going to be a (relatively) small storm, but you never know...

Tell it to the Jury Guys

Posted on August 27, 2006
It?s been a while since I wrote about Dura (O.K., all-right, or anything at all ? that was a cheap shot by the way), as my fingers were tiring from reporting on all those failed motions to dismiss, and my intracranial pressure was at dangerous levels from reading one-too-many defense oriented articles about how Dura changed the world (when, unless you?ve eaten some magic mushrooms, which I hear are quite delicious, it changed virtually nothing except you can no longer allege price inflation by itself ? a result that?s completely logical to me)...

Death in the Family

Posted on August 21, 2006
The Nugget will be back full-speed soon, as I plan on starting back up this Monday August 28, so don?t worry. In the meantime, I have some awful news. Last week, attorney Craig Rieders (pictured) died suddenly and unexpectedly. He was only 46 years old...

Serial Remover Foiled Again

Posted on August 10, 2006
I?ve heard of Defendants trying to remove their state court case to federal court, but these guys over at Prudential have got to be some of the most persistent removers (yes, I believe I have invented a new word in this context, but I think this situation warrants it) I?ve ever seen...

Judge Notes Trial Comes at End of Case, Not Beginning

Posted on August 08, 2006
So when your Judge says that ?Defendants are pummeling a straw man,? how do you think it turned out for them? Not to well, actually, as Chief Judge Lewis T. Babcock (D. Colo.) (Reagan Class of ?88) explicitly recognized that ?Plaintiffs allege not that the Defendants made false statements concerning demand for their products but rather that they omitted to disclose information that they had a duty to reveal,? and concluded that ?a jury could find that the Defendants had a duty to make a full and truthful disclosure of the facts...

Net Gainers, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $2 Million

Posted on August 03, 2006
Now who would?ve thunk that we?d be reading an opinion issued in the Cendant case in 2006? I mean seriously, this thing settled in like 1972, didn?t it? Well, June 2000 actually, but even that?s an awfully long time ago. So what could possibly generate an opinion now you ask? Well, how about some sizeable shareholders who submitted claims in the settlement but were rejected by the administrator because it found their claims?did not merit compensation under the Plan because the profits they made by selling stock at artificially inflated prices cancelled out any losses they suffered on stock held after the irregularities were disclosed...

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