CANADA – The Ontario Superior Court has dismissed a proposed class action involving the securities of a foreign company purchased on foreign exchanges. In a recent decision, Justice Belobaba found that Ontario lacked jurisdiction simpliciter or, alternatively, was forum non conveniens. This decision reinforces “[t]he prevailing international norm that securities litigation should take place in the forum where the securities trading took place.” Background In 2015, a German carmaker (the “Manufacturer”) admitted that it had…
CHICAGO – On June 26, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. ANZ Securities, Inc., 582 U. S. ____ (2017), resolving a split of authority when it ruled in a 5-4 decision that California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (“CalPERS”) complaint was untimely after CalPERS opted out of a putative class only to later file its own complaint alleging the same claims more than three years after the relevant transactions…
CANADA – A recent Ontario court decision has underlined the high threshold to be met for parties seeking leave to pursue secondary market securities class actions. In Coffin v. Atlantic Power Corp. (“Coffin”), Justice Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice denied certification of a proposed secondary market securities class action, holding that the claim lacked a reasonable possibility of success and reinforcing the high bar in place to dispense with unmeritorious claims. An action…
CANADA — In an era where secondary market misrepresentation class actions frequently cross the Canada-US border, concerns with the multiplicity of proceedings and the risk of inconsistent decisions are persistent and palpable. In a recent decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal took a step toward alleviating some of these concerns by holding that Ontario was not the most convenient forum to address the claims of proposed class members who purchased the defendant’s shares on foreign…
UNITED STATES — On October 2, 2014, the Fifth Circuit published its opinion in Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi, Puerto Rico Teachers’ Retirement System v. Amedisys, Inc., et al., No. 13-30580 (5th Cir. 2014), holding that multiple partial corrective disclosures “collectively constitute and culminate in a corrective disclosure that adequately pleads loss causation for purposes of a Rule 12(b)(6) analysis.” The three-judge panel, composed of Chief Judge Stewart, Circuit Judge Dennis, and District Judge…
In October 2011, the Ontario Securities Commission (“OSC“) raised the concept of offering no-contest settlements of the sort commonly employed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“). On March 11th of this year, after receiving some sharply divided feedback in months of public hearings, the OSC announced that it was moving forward with the introduction of a policy that would permit settlement of enforcement proceedings without requiring an admission by the respondent of misconduct…