In a June 25, 2008 decision (here), the Delaware Superior Court (New Castle County) refused to apply a D&O policy adjudicated fraud exclusion to preclude coverage for the settlement, defense fees and costs incurred in connection with an underlying securities lawsuit.
The coverage action arose out of the AT&T Corporation Securities Litigation
While I have been keeping track of the subprime and credit crisis-related litigation as it has accumulated (refer here), it has been some time since I have undertaken a detailed litigation overview. Fortunately, NERA Economic Consulting, in a July 3, 2008 report entitled “Subprime Securities Litigation: Key Players, Rising Stakes and Emerging Trends&rdquo
Subprime-related litigation may be all the rage, but the latest securities class action lawsuit harkens back to the era of the prior scandal-driven event. On July 8, 2008, plaintiffs’ attorneys filed an options backdating-related securities class action lawsuit against MRV Communications and certain of its directors and officers.
A copy of the plaintiffs’ attorneys&rsquo
Those eager to try to hold the credit rating agencies responsible for supposedly enabling the subprime mess will undoubtedly be encouraged by a July 8, 2008 SEC Report identifying rating agency “shortcomings.”
The Report, entitled “Summary Report of Issues Identifies in the Commission Staff’s Examinations of Selected Credit Rating Agencies” (here) reflects
The latest issue of InSights, entitled “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: A 70’s Revival?” (here), presents an overview of a frequent topic on this blog – the growing significance of FPCA enforcement activity. Not only is the heightened activity a regulatory and operational concern for all companies with overseas operations, but it
One of the received truths from the era of corporate scandals earlier this decade is that corporate governance matters. As a result, a high-profile part of the current assessment of any company is whether or not the company practices “good” governance. Even though the evaluation of any particular company’s governance has an eye-of-the-beholder aspect, several
About the UnitedHealth Group Class Action Settlement: UnitedHealth Group announced on July 2, 2008 (here) that it reached an agreement to settle its high profile options backdating-related securities class action lawsuit for $895 million. A July 3, 2008 Law.com article discussing the settlement can be found here.
Not only is this
Securities lawsuit filings remained elevated during the first half of 2008. The 105 new securities lawsuit filings during the first six months of 2008 were more than 50% higher than the number of new securities lawsuit filings (69) in the first six months of 2007. (Please refer to the note below regarding my lawsuit filing “count”, which may
Eastern cultures ascribe events to destiny, fate, or “karma.” But in our culture we demand to know who is to blame. The Zeitgeist of America’s blame culture apparently has decreed that Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, the former Bear Stearns fund managers, are to be the first level scapegoats for the subprime crisis.
A June 18, 2008 opinion (here) by Judge Gerald Lynch in the coverage litigation between former Refco directors and officers and one of the company’s excess D&O insurers presents a veritable conflagration of policy application issues, including perennial questions concerning warranties, severability, and imputation, as well as a host of related issues arising from the