Första APfonden v. St. Jude Medical, Inc.

312 F.R.D. 511, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 170720, 2015 WL 9308224
CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedDecember 22, 2015
DocketCivil No. 12-3070 (JNE/HB)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 312 F.R.D. 511 (Första APfonden v. St. Jude Medical, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Första APfonden v. St. Jude Medical, Inc., 312 F.R.D. 511, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 170720, 2015 WL 9308224 (mnd 2015).

Opinion

[514]*514ORDER

JOAN N. ERICKSEN, United States District Judge

This is a private securities fraud case and a putative class action against St. Jude Medical, Inc. (“SJM”) and five of its officers (“Individual Defendants”). In March 2013, Forsta APfonden (“API”) and Danske Invest Management A/S (“Danske”) were collectively appointed as the Lead Plaintiff. Order, Dkt. No. 38. The Court appointed the firms of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Cheek, LLP (“Kes-sler”) and Motley Rice LLC (“Motley Rice”) as Lead Counsel and Heins Mills & Olson, PLC (“Heins Mills”) as Liaison Counsel. Id. at 2-3.

Currently before the Court is Lead Plaintiffs motion to certify a class pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3). The proposed class consists of “all persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired [SJM] common stock during the Class Period, from February 5, 2010 through November 20, 2012, and who were damaged thereby,” with several exclusions. SAC ¶¶ 330-31, Dkt. No. 111. For the reasons set forth below, the Court grants the motion.

I. Background

In the Second Amended Complaint in this action, Lead Plaintiff alleges that the Defendants made a series of false statements and materially misleading omissions regarding the safety and reliability of two generations of leads developed and manufactured by SJM. Leads are custom-designed, insulated wires that connect implanted devices like a pacemaker or defibrillator to a patient’s heart, transmitting information about the heartbeat to the device and, in turn, delivering therapeutic electrical impulses from the device to the heart. Lead Plaintiff alleges that Defendants’ misrepresentations and omissions violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) related Rule 10b-5, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5(b), and that the Individual Defendants, as SJM control persons, further violated Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. § 78t(a), in connection with those same misrepresentations and omissions. SAC ¶¶ 338-52. Lead Plaintiff alleges that API and Danske, like other putative class members, purchased SJM stock during the proposed class period and were harmed when the stock’s price fell after the truth was revealed through a series of partial corrective disclosures. E.g., id. ¶¶ 13, 19-20, 330. On behalf of a putative class, Lead Plaintiff seeks compensatory damages and other relief.

A thorough summary and analysis of the claims is contained in the Court’s March 10, 2014 Order granting in part and denying in part Defendants’ motion to dismiss Lead Plaintiffs Amended Consolidated Complaint; familiarity with that Order is presumed. MTD Order, Dkt. No. 78. In short, Lead Plaintiff alleges that in “Dear Doctor” advisory letters that SJM sent to physicians in 2010 to 2012, quarterly and annual reports that SJM filed with the SEC between March 2010 and August 2012, and other public statements made during that time frame, SJM misleadingly represented or implied to the investing public that its development, manufacture, and marketing of two generations of leads were compliant with applicable laws and regulations, and that both generations of leads were safe and reliable. See id. at 14-31. The leads at issue included the following models: Riata, Riata ST, QuickSite, Quick-Flex, Riata ST Optim, Durata, Durata SJ4, and QuickFlex p. SAC ¶ 41.

II. Standards for Class Certification

“In order to obtain class certification, a plaintiff has the burden of showing that the class should be certified and that the requirements of Rule 23 are met.” Luiken v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC, 705 F.3d 370, 372 (8th Cir.2013) (quoting Coleman v. Watt, 40 F.3d 255, 258 (8th Cir.1994)). In exercising its “broad discretion to decide whether certification is appropriate,” id. (quoting Prof'l Firefighters Ass’n of Omaha, Local 385 v. Zalewski, 678 F.3d 640, 645 (8th Cir.2012)), the Court may be required to “resolve disputes going to the factual setting of the case, and such disputes may overlap the merits of the case,” id. (quoting Blades v. Monsanto Co., 400 F.3d 562, 566 (8th Cir.2005)).

Lead Plaintiff must meet all of the requirements of Rule 23(a) for class certification: [515]*515numerosity, commonality, typicality, and fair and adequate representation. Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a). It must also satisfy one of the three subsections of Rule 23(b). In re St. Jude Med., Inc., 425 F.3d 1116, 1119 (8th Cir.2005) (citing Amchem Prods., Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591, 614, 117 S.Ct. 2231, 138 L.Ed.2d 689 (1997)).

Rule 23(b)(3) requires that “questions of law or fact common to class members predominate over any questions affecting only individual members_” Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3). The predominance requirement “is ‘far more demanding’ than the requirement of commonality” and “tests whether proposed classes are sufficiently cohesive to warrant adjudication by representation.” Luiken, 705 F.3d at 377 (quoting Amchem, 521 U.S. at 623-24, 117 S.Ct. 2231)). It requires the Court to conduct a limited but rigorous analysis, including of facts “behind the pleadings,” to “determin[e] whether, if the plaintiffs’ general allegations are true, common evidence could suffice to make out a prima facie case for the class.” Id. (quoting In re Zurn Pex Plumbing Prod. Liab. Litig., 644 F.3d 604, 618 (8th Cir.2011)). To be clear, it “requires a showing that questions common to the class predominate, not that those questions will be answered, on the merits, in favor of the class.” Halvorson v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 718 F.3d 773, 778 (8th Cir.2013) (quoting Amgen Inc. v. Conn. Ret. Plans & Trust Funds, — U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 1184, 1191, 185 L.Ed.2d 308 (2013)).

In addition, to certify a Rule 23(b)(3) class, the Court must find “that a class action is superior to other available methods for fairly and efficiently adjudicating the controversy,” taking into consideration, among other things, the several matters specified by the Rule.

III. Rule 23(a) Requirements

Lead Plaintiff has met its burden to establish numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy. Defendants do not oppose a finding on any of these prerequisites, and for the reasons below, the Court finds that each is satisfied.

First, a class must be “so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable .... ” Fed. R. Civ. P.

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Bluebook (online)
312 F.R.D. 511, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 170720, 2015 WL 9308224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/forsta-apfonden-v-st-jude-medical-inc-mnd-2015.