In re CMS Energy Securities Litigation

236 F.R.D. 338, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17022, 2006 WL 763193
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedMarch 24, 2006
DocketNo. 02-CV-72004-DT
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 236 F.R.D. 338 (In re CMS Energy Securities Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re CMS Energy Securities Litigation, 236 F.R.D. 338, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17022, 2006 WL 763193 (E.D. Mich. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART PLAINTIFFS’ AMENDED MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION (DOCUMENT NO. 233)

STEEH, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Before the court is plaintiffs’ amended1 motion for certification of a class (the “Class”) made under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a) and 23(b)(3). In it, plaintiffs request certification of lead plaintiffs Andover Brokerage, LLC and Herbert Steiger, and additional plaintiffs Morris L. Cook; Louisiana School Employees’ Retirement System; and Heidi and Paul R. Kirsehke as Class representatives, and designation of plaintiffs’ current co-lead counsel Entwistle & Cappucci LLP/ Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP as co-lead counsel for the Class.2

BACKGROUND

As discussed in several opinions already issued by the court in this litigation, plaintiffs’ securities fraud claims in this case rely on the fraud-on-the-market theory and stem from allegedly false and misleading statements and omissions made by CMS. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that defendant CMS, through its Marketing, Services, and Trading division (“CMS MS & T”), engaged in round trip trading, where at the same time MS & T bought energy from another entity, it was selling an equal amount of energy to that entity. Plaintiffs assert that these simultaneous transactions served only to boost CMS revenues, were fraudulent, and improperly elevated CMS to the top tier of energy companies, thus artificially inflating the trading price of CMS stock.

Plaintiffs allege that when news of this scheme became public on Thursday, May 9, and Friday, May 10, 2002, the price of CMS stock began to decline, leading to large financial losses for investors. The New York Stock Exchange in fact delayed the start to trading of CMS stock when the market opened on Monday, May 13, 2002. Trading resumed later in the day and CMS stock lost 22% of its value by the time the market [340]*340closed that day. Between May 17, the date the first complaint was filed in this case, and September 22, 2002, 18 separate securities fraud lawsuits were lodged against CMS/defendants.

Plaintiffs propose certification of the following Class:

All persons who purchased common stock and/or 8.75% Adjustable Convertible Trust Securities of CMS Energy Corporation (“CMS”) during the period of October 25, 2000 through and including March 31, 2003 and who were damaged thereby. Excluded from the class are current and previously-named Defendants, the officers and directors of CMS at all relevant times, members of their immediate families and their legal representatives, heirs, successors or assigns and any entity in which current and previously-named Defendants have or had a controlling interest.

The court’s consideration of the propriety of plaintiffs’ proposed Class, and its determination in that regard, is set forth below.

ANALYSIS

As required by the statutory framework of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23, plaintiffs’ motion for class certification first asserts that the requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a) are satisfied, and then moves into the reasons plaintiffs assert support a finding that this action may be maintained as a class action under Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(b)(3).

In their response, defendants3 specifically argue that: 1) the class period should end on a date in May, 2002, rather than the plaintiffs’ proposed date of March 31, 2003; 2) day traders,4 short sellers, and members of the class in the companion ERISA litigation should be excluded;5 and 3) purchasers of CMS preferred securities “8.75% Adjustable Convertible Trust Securities” (“ACTS”) should not be added to the Class at this time.

A Prerequisites to a Class Action

This section of the rule sets forth that

[o]ne or more members of a class may sue or be sued as representative parties on behalf of all only if (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a).

23(a)(1): Numerosity

Plaintiffs assert that the class in this litigation consists of “at least thousands of members” and claim that numerosity is a given in class actions “involving nationally traded securities,” citing Ballan v. Upjohn Co., 159 F.R.D. 473, 479 (W.D.Mich.1994) (quoting Zeidman v. Ray McDermott & Co., 651 F.2d 1030, 1039 (5th Cir.1981)). Plaintiffs cite additional class action cases, listing the number of plaintiffs in each, the smallest group being 38. Hendricks-Robinson v. Excel Corp., 164 F.R.D. 667, 671 (C.D.Ill.1996). Plaintiffs further assert that the proposed Class members are widely dispersed, making joinder further impracticable. They rely on Eisenberg v. Gagnon, 766 F.2d 770, 785-86 (3rd Cir.1985) in which the court found 90 geographically dispersed plaintiffs sufficiently numerous to approve a class. The court agrees that the proposed Class is sufficiently numerous to satisfy this requirement, as defendants do not dispute that it may number in the thousands.

23(a)(2): Commonality

Plaintiffs contend that all members of the potential Class use the same theory for recovery; i.e. fraud-on-the-market, and seek to prove that the CMS stock price was artificially inflated through defendants’ misrepresentations and omissions. Plaintiffs further as[341]*341sert that the members of the Class need only one common question, citing to Sprague v. Gen. Motors Corp., 133 F.3d 388, 397 (6th Cir.1998) (citing American Med. Sys., Inc., 75 F.3d 1069, 1080 (6th Cir.1996)). Plaintiffs assert five specific issues all proposed Class members have in common in this litigation, e.g. “[wjhether Defendants’ failure to disclose CMS’ massive round-trip trades rendered their public statement materially false and misleading;” and the court agrees that there are clearly many questions common to the proposed Class. Defendants do not actively dispute plaintiffs’ assertion that the prospective Class members have common questions. Plaintiffs have persuaded the court that common issues, the resolution of which would advance the litigation, exist among all prospective Class plaintiffs.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
236 F.R.D. 338, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17022, 2006 WL 763193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-cms-energy-securities-litigation-mied-2006.