In re Charles Schwab Corp. Securities Litigation

264 F.R.D. 531, 2009 WL 2591389
District Court, N.D. California·Decided August 21, 2009·No. No. C 08-01510 WHA·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

[532]*532ORDER RE MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION

WILLIAM ALSUP, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

In this proposed class action, plaintiffs allege that defendants Charles Schwab Corporation and several affiliated entities and individuals violated federal securities laws and various state laws by misrepresenting the risk profile of Schwab’s YieldPlus Fund and by improperly changing the fund’s investment policies. Following motions on the pleadings, the bulk of plaintiffs’ claims have [533]*533been permitted to proceed against the Schwab defendants and the fund’s independent trustees, although two state claims against those defendants were dismissed. All claims against Schwab’s independent auditor were dismissed. Plaintiffs now move for class certification. For the reasons stated below, this order finds that the requirements of Rule 23 are satisfied, although the classes to be certified are somewhat different than those proposed by plaintiffs. The motion for class certification is therefore granted in PART and DENIED IN PART.

STATEMENT

Investors in Schwab’s YieldPlus Fund, a short-term fixed-income mutual fund, brought this action against (1) several Schwab corporate entities, and officers and employees thereof, (2) trustees of the fund who signed the registration statements at issue, and (3) PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the fund’s auditor. All of plaintiffs’ federal claims — claims under Sections 11, 12 and 15 of the 1933 Act — and a state unfair-competition claim survived motions to dismiss filed by the Schwab defendants and the fund’s independent trustees, but two other state claims against those defendants were dismissed. The claims against Prieewaterhou-seCoopers were also dismissed. There are no 1934 Act claims. Plaintiffs now move for class certification. The basic circumstances of the case were set forth in previous orders (see Dkt. No. 164,195).

In brief, defendants annually filed registration statements with the SEC. They marketed and sold fund shares to investors with annual prospectuses. The prospectuses referred investors to various statements of additional information. These contained more detailed discussions of the fund’s investment policies and risks. Investors were also referred to the fund’s certified shareholder reports (£&, annual reports). Both were incorporated by reference into the prospectuses.

Plaintiffs allege that these documents as well as other Schwab advertisements and communications misrepresented the investment policies and risk profile of the fund. Defendants allegedly positioned the fund as an “ultra short term bond fund” which sought to keep its average portfolio duration below one year and to limit “principal risk” exposure in order to preserve capital. Instead, plaintiffs allege, the fund took on significantly greater risk by extending its average portfolio duration beyond two years.

Defendants also represented that the fund was similar to a money market fund and sought to maintain minimal changes in share price. Such representations were false, plaintiffs allege, because the fund concentrated an increasing portion of its assets — eventually more than 45 percent — in riskier mortgaged-backed and asset-backed securities. Due to such misrepresentations, plaintiffs allege, investors were unwittingly exposed to significant risks, and as the nation’s mortgage crisis unfolded those risks led to substantial losses.

Multiple independent class actions filed by the fund’s investors were consolidated into the present class action, and five lead plaintiffs were appointed.1 Plaintiffs now move for class certification. They initially proposed one class for the federal securities claims and a second class — consisting of two sub-classes — for the unfair-competition claim (the sole remaining state claim). The proposed federal securities class was as follows (Comply 122.a):

all persons or entities who acquired shares of the Fund traceable to a false and misleading Registration Statement and Prospectus for the Fund and who were damaged thereby.

As will be explained, in the course of briefing this motion plaintiffs changed course and requested two separate federal classes, a Section 11 class and a Section 12 class each with different class periods.

Defendants also propose a nationwide state-law class consisting of two sub-classes, a “pre-breach” sub-class and a “post-breach” [534]*534subclass. The proposed state “pre-breach class” is as follows (Br. at i):2

all persons or entities who owned shares of the Fund at any time before September 1, 2006, and, by continuing to own those shares, suffered damages as a result thereof.

The proposed “post-breach class” is as follows (Br. at i):

all persons or entities who acquired shares of the Fund at any time on or after September 1, 2006, and, by continuing to own those shares, suffered damages as a result thereof.

The proposed classes exclude defendants, members of their immediate families and their legal representatives, heirs, successors or assigns and any entity in which defendants have or had a controlling interest (Br. ati).

ANALYSIS

In determining whether class certification is appropriate, “the question is not whether the plaintiff or plaintiffs have stated a cause of action or will prevail on the merits, but rather, whether the requirements of Rule 23 are met.” Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 417 U.S. 156, 177-178, 94 S.Ct. 2140, 40 L.Ed.2d 732 (1974). Although we may not investigate the likelihood of prevailing on the merits, judges are at liberty to, and indeed must, consider evidence relating to the merits if such evidence also goes to the requirements of Rule 23. Dukes v. Wal-Mart, Inc., 509 F.3d 1168, 1177 n. 2 (9th Cir.2007), rehearing en banc granted by 556 F.3d 919. The party seeking class certification bears the burden of showing that each of the four requirements of Rule 23(a) and at least one of the requirements of Rule 23(b) are met. Id. at 1176; Hanlon v. Chrysler Corp., 150 F.3d 1011, 1019-22 (9th Cir.1998).

Pursuant to Rule 23(a), for a named plaintiff to obtain class certification, the court must find: (1) numerosity of the class; (2) that common questions of law or fact predominate; (3) that the named plaintiffs claims and defenses are typical; and (4) that the named plaintiff can adequately protect the interests of the class. In addition, in the instant case, plaintiffs seek to certify the class under Rule 23(b)(3). Certification under Rule 23(b)(3) requires that a district court find “that questions of law or fact common to the members of the class predominate over any questions affecting only individual members, and that a class action is superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of the controversy.”

The Schwab defendants agree that a class should be certified. Defendants, however, challenge the length of the proposed class period for the securities class and raise additional challenges to the manageability of the Section 12 claim on a class-wide basis.

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In re Charles Schwab Corp. Securities Litigation, 264 F.R.D. 531, 2009 WL 2591389 (N.D. Cal. 2009).

264 F.R.D. 531 (In re Charles Schwab Corp. Securities Litigation) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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