Class Actions Brief Blog

Those who follow class action law probably will be familiar with In re Trulia (2016), the seminal decision of the Delaware Court of Chancery that put the brakes on disclosure-only settlements.  Before Trulia, these controversial settlements were ubiquitous in deal litigation, in which shareholders of a company file a class action lawsuit seeking to stop the company from engaging in a merger or acquisition on the ground the company failed to disclose sufficient information about the transaction.  Under a typical disclosure-only settlement, the company agrees to supplement its ...

We have previously commented about “disclosure only” settlements in class action merger cases, and the increasing scrutiny provided to them by courts here and in Delaware. Judge Bledsoe entered the fray yesterday, approving a settlement of litigation involving the merger of Yadkin Financial Corporation and NewBridge Bancorp in a 44-page order. In a stark preamble to his findings, Judge Bledsoe gave warning that the Business Court would likely be joining their brethren in Delaware in strictly reviewing such settlements in the future. The Court characterized such a shift as a ...

Earlier this year, we reported that Multiple Studies Show Increase in Securities Class Actions. Cornerstone Research, one of the groups covered in our earlier report, recently issued its 2016 Midyear Assessment. This new analysis, which covers cases filed in January through June of this year, is consistent with several of the trends we reported previously, including the increasing number of securities class actions, the rise in the number of cases against smaller companies, and the increase in the number of Fourth Circuit cases.

Of particular interest is the significant increase ...

Recent studies by PricewaterhouseCoopers, NERA Economic Consulting, Cornerstone, and Kevin LaCroix of D&O Diary have all found that federal securities class actions are on the rise. According to PwC, the data shows a trend towards more cases filed against smaller companies, especially for claims regarding accounting irregularities. Smaller companies also face a significant risk of claims regarding inadequate internal controls over financial reporting, likely due to their smaller size and more limited resources.

NERA found that standard federal securities class actions ...

Last month, we previewed the challenge to a settlement of litigation involving the Reynolds-Lorillard merger. The Business Court has helpfully made available the transcript of the hearing on approval of the settlement, which took place on February 12. At the hearing, the Court made clear that it was quite familiar with recent changes in merger litigation in Delaware, including the Trulia case, and stated that it was reviewing the settlement under “strict scrutiny,” not a “rubber stamp standard.” Notwithstanding a shareholder objection supported by Professor Sean ...

When two public companies announce an intention to merge, class litigation follows like the night the day. These complaints usually request some sort of preliminary injunctive relief which, if successful, can derail the merger. Rarely, however, do plaintiffs press for this relief. Instead, they opt to resolve the claims, which requires court approval under Rule 23. The resolution can involve the payment of money to shareholders, but many times it does not and instead takes the form of “programmatic relief,” consisting principally of additional disclosures to the class ...

Can a class action settlement agreement contain a fee-shifting provision that provides for a payment of attorneys’ fees? In a question of first impression, the North Carolina Court of Appeals said yes, subject to a trial court’s approval of the settlement at a fairness hearing.

In the long-running Ehrenhaus v. Baker case, the Plaintiff brought a class action challenging the merger of Wells Fargo and Wachovia. The parties ultimately entered into a settlement agreement that also provided for a payment of attorneys’ fees to Plaintiff’s counsel. The trial court approved the ...

In two recent studies of shareholder class actions over corporate mergers, the authors reached conclusions consistent with our experience with such cases in North Carolina: that nearly every acquisition of a public company results in shareholder litigation. The Cornerstone Research report found that 93% of public company acquisitions were challenged. Takeover Litigation in 2014, a separate study by Matthew Cain of the SEC and Steven Solomon of UC Berkeley, found that 94.9 of deals were challenged. (The two studies used slightly different cutoffs for their samples.)

Both ...

The North Carolina Business Court has seemed to settle upon a methodology in approving “disclosure only” settlements in merger cases. Following Judge Gale’s decision in In re Harris Teeter Merger Litigation, Judge Bledsoe certified a non-opt-out settlement class last week in In re PokerTek Merger Litigation, No. 14-CVS-105679 (Jan. 22, 2015), observing that such classes have become the norm both in Business Court and in Delaware. The key to such certification, as Judge Bledsoe observed, was that the case involve predominantly “equitable claims,” rather than claims ...