In 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.
Read MoreIn Eli Lilly & Co., 2018 BL 7440 (Jan. 8, 2018), Eli Lilly & Company (“Eli Lilly”) asked the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to permit the omission of a proposal submitted by William Steiner (“Shareholder”) requesting the board to replace the company’s supermajority voting requirement with a simple majority requirement. The SEC issued the requested no-action letter allowing for the exclusion of the proposal from the 2018 proxy materials under Rule 14a-8(i)(10).
Read MoreIn City of Hialeah Employees' Retirement System v. FEI, No. 3-16-cv-1792-SI, 2018 BL 25615 (D. Or. Jan. 25, 2018), the United States District Court for the District of Oregon granted a motion to dismiss the City of Hialeah Employees’ Retirement System’s (“Plaintiff”) Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”), filed against FEI Company ("FEI"), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. ("Thermo"), and named Individual Defendants, Thomas Kelly, Donald Kania, Homa Bahrami, Arie Huijser, Jan Lobbezoo, Jami Dover Nachstsheim, James Richardson, and Richard Wills (collectively, "Defendants"), finding Plaintiff failed to adequately plead that Defendants’ violated Section14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and that Individual Defendants violated Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act.
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