Securities Fraud Claims Against Vivendi Dismissed in First “F-Cubed” Case to Go to Trial
February 24, 2011
On February 22, 2011, in a much-anticipated ruling, Judge Richard J. Holwell of the Southern District of New York granted the motion by Vivendi, S.A. to dismiss all securities fraud claims brought against the company by purchasers of Vivendi common stock. The decision dramatically reduces the damages available to plaintiffs in the long-running class action litigation against Vivendi, which is the first and only so-called “foreign-cubed” case (i.e., a case in which foreign investors who purchased foreign securities on a foreign exchange bring securities claims in the U.S.) to have gone to trial. Based on a recent Supreme Court decision, Vivendi argued, and the District Court agreed, that plaintiffs who purchased Vivendi common stock could not bring securities fraud claims in a U.S. court. Cravath has represented Vivendi in this litigation since it commenced in 2002 and through the four-month jury trial in late 2009.
The Cravath team included Of Counsel Paul C. Saunders and partners Daniel Slifkin and Timothy G. Cameron.
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J.D., 1991, Harvard Law SchoolSears Prize, magna cum laude
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B.C.L., 1988, University of OxfordFirst Class Honors
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B.A., 1987, University of OxfordFirst Class Honors
- New York
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LL.M., 1998, University of Chicago Law School
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M.ComLaw, 1997, Auckland University - Faculty of LawFirst Class Honors
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LL.B., 1994, Auckland University - Faculty of Law
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B.Com., 1994, Auckland University - Faculty of Law
- New York
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February 03, 2012
Shareholder Claims Against Vivendi Dismissed
On January 27, 2012, Judge Richard J. Holwell of the Southern District of New York dismissed all claims against Vivendi, S.A. brought by individual plaintiffs who purchased Vivendi ordinary shares on foreign exchanges. In his opinion, Judge Holwell cited the June 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd, which altered then-prevailing Second Circuit law concerning the scope of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder) by holding that Section 10(b) does not apply extraterritorially. The individual plaintiffs had alleged that Vivendi misled shareholders about its financial condition between 2000 and 2002. The same Southern District of New York court previously applied Morrison to the Vivendi class action litigation in a decision dated February 17, 2011, dismissing the claims of the class action plaintiffs who purchased Vivendi ordinary shares. Cravath has represented Vivendi in various securities litigation since 2002.
