In Perez v. Higher One Holdings, Inc., No. 3:14-cv-755 (D. Conn. Sept. 25, 2017), the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut granted in part and denied in part Higher One Holdings, Inc. (“Higher One”) and its current or former officers, Mark Volcheck, Christopher Wolf, Jeffrey Wallace, Miles Lasater, Dean Hatton, and Patrick McFadden’s (collectively “Defendants”) motion to dismiss the Second Amended Class Action Complaint of Brian Perez and Robert E. Lee, individually and on behalf of other similarly situated investors (collectively “Plaintiffs”), alleging violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.
Read MoreIn Desta v. Wins Fin. Holdings Inc. Et. Al., No. 17-cv-02983-CAS(AGRx), 2018 BL 70590 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 28, 2018), the United States District Court for the Central District of California denied Wins Finance Holdings Inc. (“Wins”), and Wins Co-CEO Jianming Hao, Co-CEO and COO Renhui Mu, and CFO Junfeng Zhao’s, (collectively the “Defendants”) motion to dismiss Michael Desta’s (“Plaintiff”) complaint for failure to state a claim for securities fraud pursuant to Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), and Rules 10b– 5(a) and (c) under, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b–5(a) & (c). The court held that the Plaintiff alleged sufficient facts to show the elements of falsity, scienter, loss causation, and reliance under the Act, such that a proper claim was pleaded.
Read MoreIn City Trading Fund v. Nye, 2018 BL 44689, (Sup. Ct. Feb. 08, 2018), the Supreme Court of New York denied City Trading Fund’s (“Shareholder”) motion, on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated stockholders, for final approval of their settlement with Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (“Company”), the Company’s individually named directors, and Texas Industries, Inc. (“Texas Industries”), after the Shareholder alleged the Company breached its fiduciary duties to stockholders by making material misstatements and omissions in the proxy materials provided to stockholders in preparation for a vote on the Company’s proposed merger with Texas Industries.
Read MoreIn Hawkins v. Borsy, No. 1:05-cv-1256–LMB-JFA, 2018 WL 793599 (E.D. Va. Feb. 8, 2018), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted corporate affiliates (“Respondents”) of MediaTechnik Kft. (“MediaTechnik”) motion to vacate, the district court’s decision granting William Hawkins (“Hawkins”), Eric Keller, Thomas Zato, Kristof Gabor, and Justin Panchley (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) default judgment against Laszlo Borsy (“Borsy”), Mediaware Corporation (“Mediaware”), MediaTechnik, i-TV, and Peterfia Kft. (“Peterfia”) (collectively, “Defendants”) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
Read MoreIn In re Psychemedics Corp. Securities Litigation, No. 17-cv-10186-RGS, 2017 BL 399136 (D. Mass. Nov. 07, 2017), the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted Psychemedics Corp. (“Psychemedics”) and Raymond Kubacki’s (“Kubacki”), Psychemedics’ Chief Executive Officer, (collectively, “Defendants”) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim in a putative class action brought by Mary Kathleen Hermann on behalf of all of those who purchased Psychemedics common stock between February 10, 2014 and January 31, 2017 (collectively, “Plaintiffs”). Based on Plaintiffs’ failure to allege facts sufficient to support an inference of scienter, the court granted dismissal of the claims alleging violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Read MoreIn Schaffer, et al. v. Horizon Pharma PLC, et al., No. 16-CV-1763 (JMF), 2018 BL 16225 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 18, 2018), the Southern District of New York dismissed the claims brought by a class of plaintiffs (“Plaintiffs”) against Horizon Pharma PLC (“Horizon”), a number of Horizon’s executives (“Individual Defendants”), and various underwriters (Horizon, Individual Defendants and the underwriters, collectively “Defendants”). The complaint alleged Horizon and Individual Defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”) and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Defendants violated Sections 11, 12(a)(2), and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (“Securities Act”). The court held Plaintiffs’ complaint only gave conclusory statements and insufficient facts to establish securities fraud or scienter and dismissed the complaint.
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