Kaplan v. Pomerantz

131 F.R.D. 118, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9903, 1990 WL 70151
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMay 22, 1990
DocketNo. 89 C 7033
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 131 F.R.D. 118 (Kaplan v. Pomerantz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kaplan v. Pomerantz, 131 F.R.D. 118, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9903, 1990 WL 70151 (N.D. Ill. 1990).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ROVNER, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This securities fraud lawsuit was brought on behalf of the purchaser of certain securities by her husband, who is also the administrator of her estate. Pending is plaintiffs motion for certification of the case as a class action pursuant to Fed.R. Civ.P. 23. For the reasons stated below, plaintiffs motion is granted in part and denied in part.

II. FACTS

For purposes of this motion, the Court accepts as true the factual allegations in the complaint concerning the merits of the case. Plaintiffs wife, Lois Kaplan, bought 50 shares of stock in Gaylord Container Corporation (“Gaylord”) on July 15, 1988. Defendants are Gaylord, certain of .Gay-lord’s officers and directors (“the Individual Defendants”), and Salomon Brothers, Inc. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. (“the Underwriters”). Gaylord had gone public on July 7, 1988, with the sale by Gaylord and certain shareholders of 3,800,000 shares of Class A common stock in a public offering at $20.50 per share.

Prior to the public offering, Gaylord had filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a Registration Statement and Prospectus (collectively, “the Offering Materials”). On July 7, 1988, the SEC declared the Registration Statement effective. According to plaintiff, the Offering Materials made a number of false and misleading statements and omissions, the exact nature of which are not important for purposes of the pending motion. These false and misleading statements and omissions were perpetuated in documents publicly disseminated by Gaylord in the period following the public offering. Those documents include an Initial Shareholders' Report issued in August, 1988; Reports on Form 10Q filed with the SEC in August, 1988, February, 1989, and April, 1989; a Report on Form 10K filed in December, 1988; and an Annual Report to Shareholders issued in January, 1989. Because of the false and misleading statements and omissions, Gaylord stock sold for over $20 per share through April, 1989. After the revelation of adverse facts concerning Gay-lord, the stock price fell dramatically.

In Count I of the complaint, plaintiff contends that defendants are liable pursuant to Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C. § 77k, for false and misleading statements contained in the Offering Materials. In Count II, plaintiff claims that defendants are liable pursuant to Sections 10(b) and 20 of the Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b) and 78t, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, with respect to the Offering Materials and/or the subsequent documents. In Count III, plaintiff contends that defendants are liable pursuant to Section 12(2) of the Securities Act, 15 U.S.C. § 111 (2), for their sales of securities pursuant to the false and misleading Offering Materials.

Plaintiff seeks the certification of a class consisting of all persons who purchased Gaylord Class A common stock between June 29, 1988 and April 25, 1989, excluding the following: all defendants in this case, all selling shareholders in the June 29,1988 public offering (“Selling Shareholders”), members of the immediate family of each of the Individual Defendants and Selling Shareholders, any entity in which any of the defendants or Selling Shareholders has a controlling interest, and the legal representatives, heirs, successors, and assigns of any of the defendants or Selling Shareholders.

III. ANALYSIS

A. Introduction

Plaintiffs seek certification of the class pursuant to Rule 23(b)(3). Accordingly, plaintiffs bear the burden of showing that the following six requirements are satis[121]*121fied: (1) “the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable” (Rule 23(a)(1)); (2) “there are questions of law or fact common to the class” (Rule 23(a)(2)); (3) “the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class” (Rule 23(a)(3)); (4) “the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class” (Rule 23(a)(4); (5) “the questions of law or fact common to the members of the class predominate over any questions affecting only individual members” (Rule 23(b)(3)); and (6) “a class action is superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of the controversy” (Rule 23(b)(3)).

Defendants have not challenged plaintiff’s assertions that the first, second, fifth and sixth requirements are satisfied, and the Court finds that those requirements are met. Defendants do, however, raise several issues which relate to typicality and adequacy of representation.

B. Investigation of the Claims

First, defendants argue that plaintiff is not an adequate class representative because he failed to investigate his claims against defendants. The Court initially notes that the adequacy of a class representative “depends on two factors: (a) the plaintiff’s attorney must be qualified, experienced, and generally able to conduct the proposed litigation, and (b) the plaintiff must not have interests antagonistic to those of the class.” Susman v. Lincoln American Corp., 561 F.2d 86, 90 (7th Cir. 1977). Although defendants’ first argument does not fall neatly under either of these two factors, defendants rely on various cases in which a plaintiff has been held to be an inadequate class representative for his or his counsel’s failure to be sufficiently familiar with the case. See Levine v. Berg, 79 F.R.D. 95, 98 (S.D.N.Y.1978); Rogosin v. Steadman, 65 F.R.D. 365, 367 (S.D.N.Y.1974), supp’d, 71 F.R.D. 514 (S.D.N.Y.1976); Sicinski v. Reliance Funding Corp., 82 F.R.D. 730, 734 n. 2 (S.D.N.Y. 1979); Rand v. Monsanto Co., No. 85 C 9087, 1989 WL 27458 (N.D.Ill. March 23, 1989).

Defendants point to plaintiff's testimony at his deposition as establishing the inadequacy of his investigation of this case. Plaintiff stated that he had not taken any steps to familiarize himself as to any matter pertaining to Gaylord. (Dep. 166.) He had never read the prospectus. (Dep. 341.) He did not make a personal investigation into the conditions of Gaylord’s plants. (Dep. 138.) He does not have personal knowledge that the price of Gaylord’s stock was overstated or that Gaylord’s prospectus contained false statements. (Dep. 141, 163.) He testified repeatedly that he left the investigation up to his lawyers, but he did not ask his lawyers what their investigation involved. (Dep. 199.)

Plaintiff responds that his knowledge of the case is sufficient and that the plaintiff need not personally conduct a thorough investigation of the facts in order to qualify as a class representative. See Surowitz v. Hilton Hotels Corp., 383 U.S. 363, 86 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
131 F.R.D. 118, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9903, 1990 WL 70151, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kaplan-v-pomerantz-ilnd-1990.