While The 10b-5 Daily was on break last week, there were interesting developments in two of the biggest ongoing securities litigations.
(1) On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals declined to reconsider its class certification decision in the IPO allocation cases.
Quote of note (ruling): “The Petitioners, having sought a broad class, are essentially complaining that we failed to narrow their class definition to an extent that might have satisfied Rule 23 requirements. Whatever authority we might have had to undertake that task, we did not think it appropriate to provide legal advice to experienced class-action litigators.”
(2) Meanwhile, the plaintiffs in the Enron securities class action are attempting to appeal the denial of class certification by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit related to their claims against Enron’s banks. A cert petition (via WSJ) was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday. Among other things, the petition argues that the case is a “suitable companion” to the Charter Communications case the Court will hear next term. The media coverage includes articles by the Associated Press and Houston Chronicle.
Quote of note (cert petition): “This case is especially significant because it involves the alleged misconduct of banks – major actors in our nation’s financial markets and the banks that Central Bank identified as secondary actors who nonetheless ‘may be potentially liable as primary violators under Rule 10b-5 in any complex securities fraud [where] there are likely to be multiple violators.'”
The 10b-5 Daily 