On October 23, 2008, in a much-anticipated decision addressing what it called "the vexing question of the extraterritorial application of the securities laws," the Second Circuit in the National Australia Bank (NAB) case ruled (here) that U.S. courts lack subject matter jurisdiction over the claims of foreign claimants in that case who bought their NAB shares on a foreign exchange. Although the Second Circuit did not, as friends-of-the-court had urged, pronounce a bright line rule against jurisdiction in such "f-cubed" claims, it nevertheless provided guidelines that will be relevant to similar cases going forward.
Background
NAB is Australia’s largest bank. Its shares trade on securities exchanges in Australia, London, Tokyo and New Zealand. Its American Depositary Receipts trade on the New York Stock Exchange. NAB has a mortgage servicing subsidiary, HomeSide, based in Florida. In 2001, NAB disclosed that it was taking a significant write-down due to a recalculation of the amortized valuating of HomeSide’s mortgage servicing rights. Following this announcement, the price of NAB’s shares and ADRs declined, and investors filed a securities class action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York.
The claim was initially brought by four plaintiffs. One of the four purported to represent domestic purchasers of NAB’s securities. The three other plaintiffs bought their shares abroad and sought to represent a class of non-U.S. purchasers. Background regarding the case can be found here.
On October 25, 2006, the District Court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint. The District Court held that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the foreign claimants claim. The court dismissed the domestic plaintiff’s action for failure to state a claim because the domestic plaintiff failed to allege that he suffered damages. The three foreign plaintiffs appealed. The domestic plaintiff’s claim was not before the Second Circuit, and so the appellate court was exclusively concerned with the jurisdictional issue.
The Second Circuit’s Opinion
In its October 23 opinion, written by Judge Barrington Parker, the Second Circuit noted that the "difficulty of the case was heightened by its novelty" – that is, the involvement of so-called "foreign-cubed" claimants. The appellees and several amici had urged the Second Circuit to adopt a "bright-line rule" by holding that in "foreign-cubed" securities litigation that mere domestic conduct should not be enough for a U.S. court to exercise subject matter jurisdiction where the conduct had no effect in the U.S. Links to the briefs for the parties and the amici can be found here. My prior post detailing the issues surrounding "f-cubed claims" generally can be found here.
The Second Circuit duly acknowledged what it characterized as the "parade of horribles" the friends-of-the-court invoked in favor of a bright line test, including the possibility that exercising jurisdiction in those cases could bring U.S. securities laws in conflict with those of other jurisdictions.
However, the Second Circuit observed that declining jurisdiction over all "foreign cubed" cases "would conflict with the goal of preventing the export of fraud from America." In particular, the Court was concerned that the U.S. should not be seen as a "safe haven for cheaters." The court said that "we are leery of a rigid bright line rule because we cannot anticipate all the circumstances in which the ingenuity of those inclined to violate the securities laws should result on their being subject to American jurisdiction."
Having rejected the bright line test, the Court went on to observe that "we are an American court, not the world’s court, and we cannot and should not expend our resources resolving cases that do not affect Americans or involve fraud emanating from America." The Second Circuit said that "in our view the ‘conduct text’ balances those competing concerns." Under the conduct test, subject matter jurisdiction exists "if activities in this country were more than merely preparatory to a fraud and culpable acts or omissions occurring here directly caused the losses abroad."
The Court then turned to applying the conduct test to the NAB case. The claimants urged that because miscalculation of HomeSide’s mortgage servicing rights had taken place in this country, U.S. courts could exercise jurisdiction. The Second Circuit nevertheless determined that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction, citing three factors: "the fraudulent statements at issue emanated from NAB’s headquarters in Australia; the complete lack of any effect on America or Americans; and the lengthy chain of causation between HomeSide’s actions and the statements that reached investors."
Discussion
Though the defendants in the NAB case prevailed, the case hardly means the end of f-cubed litigation. Arguably, in light of the Second Circuit’s refusal to adopt a bright line test, the jurisdictional standards remain largely unchanged, and litigants will continue to argue whether there is sufficient U.S. based conduct and U.S based effects to support the U.S. court’s exercise of jurisdiction.
Moreover, the Second Circuit made it clear that there will be circumstances in which it will be entirely appropriate for U.S. courts to exercise jurisdiction over the f-cubed claims. For that reason, and even though the Second Circuit held that the U.S. courts lacked jurisdiction of over the NAB case itself, foreign claimants likely will continue to try to assert claims against foreign-domiciled companies in U.S. courts.
That said, the claimants case against NAB did get tossed. The Second Circuit did caution against U.S. courts presuming to act as "the world’s court" and also cautioned against the exercise of jurisdiction over claims that do not affect Americans or involve fraud emanating from America. In other words, not all foreign claimants’ claims against foreign domiciled companies will go forward in U.S. courts.
Moreover, these issues are relevant not only at the motion to dismiss stage but also at the other procedural stages, including the lead plaintiff stage (refer here). As Adam Savett noted on the Securities Litigation Watch blog (here), courts have been increasingly willing to craft class certification to exclude foreign domiciled claimants at least in certain circumstances.
All of that said, the NAB decision will be grist for the mill in the onslaught of litigation involving foreign domiciled companies sued in connection with the current subprime and credit crisis litigation wave. The NAB decision necessarily implies a case-by-case determination and so litigants will continue to wrestle to determine whether these cases will go forward in U.S. courts. In the meantime, the cases will continue to be filed.
An October 23, 2008 Bloomberg article discussing the case can be found here.
Special thanks to George T. Conway, III of the Wachtell, Lipton law firm, who successfully represented NAB in the Second Circuit, for providing me with a copy of the opinion.