One trend I have noted on this site in recent years is the proclivity of plaintiffs’ lawyers to file securities class action lawsuits or shareholder derivative lawsuits in the wake of antitrust regulatory or enforcement actions. These kinds of lawsuits tend to cluster in specific industries as antitrust enforcement authorities concentrate on alleged anticompetitive behavior in those sectors. One industry that recently was the focus of both regulatory action and securities litigation is the poultry production industry.
As discussed here, beginning in 2016 companies in this industry that found themselves the subject of antitrust enforcement actions were hit with follow on securities litigation. In connection with one of those suits involving poultry producer Pilgrim’s Pride the court recently granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss. Both the lawsuit and the court’s ruling are significant given the current Presidential administration’s ramped-up antitrust enforcement approach and the possibility for resulting follow-on D&O claims. The Court’s March 8, 2022 order in the Pilgrim’s Pride case can be found here.
Continue Reading Antitrust Enforcement Follow-On Securities Suit Against Pilgrim’s Pride Dismissed
Every year after Labor Day, I take a step back and survey the most important current trends and developments in the world of Directors’ and Officers’ liability and insurance. This year’s review is set out below. As the following discussion shows, this is a particularly eventful time in the world of D&O.
From the outset, it has been clear that certain issues are going to be top-of-the-agenda items for the Biden Administration, including, for example, climate change, diversity and inclusion, and cybersecurity. In a July 9, 2021 Executive Order (
As I have noted in prior posts (most recently 
One of the characteristic securities litigation patterns for many years has been that lawsuit filings tend to come in distinctive waves, in which specific sectors get hit with a series of securities suits or companies engaging in certain types of conduct or business practices attract securities litigation. The lawsuits arising out of the dot-com crash and the options backdating scandal are examples of these kinds of litigation patterns. Over the last several weeks, a different industry sector pattern has emerged. The poultry production industry, which recently has been the target of private antitrust litigation, has now been hit with a string of follow-on securities class action lawsuits as well. These lawsuits represent one of the more distinctive securities litigation filing patterns this year.
A settlement of an antitrust lawsuit alleging that a group of hospitals conspired to underpay their nurses did not represent excluded “disgorgement” and therefore was not excluded from coverage under William Beaumont Hospital’s management liability insurance policy, according to a January 16, 2014 Sixth Circuit decision. The opinion will likely be of particular interest to
Largely as a result of changes in the industry following the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, health care organizations have seen their D&O insurance rates increasing and the available terms and conditions tightening, according to a December 10, 2013 report from Marsh. Moreover, these changes are likely to continue in 2014, according to the
On March 29, 2013, in a ruling that she acknowledged some might find to be “unexpected” in light of the substantial regulatory fines and penalties that some of the defendants have paid, Southern District of New York