Nathan Gordon Trust v. Northgate Exploration, Ltd.

148 F.R.D. 105, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3990, 1993 WL 116101
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedApril 1, 1993
DocketNo. 91 Civ. 3937 (TPG)
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 148 F.R.D. 105 (Nathan Gordon Trust v. Northgate Exploration, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nathan Gordon Trust v. Northgate Exploration, Ltd., 148 F.R.D. 105, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3990, 1993 WL 116101 (S.D.N.Y. 1993).

Opinion

OPINION

GRIESA, Chief Judge.

This is a securities class action alleging fraud on the market, brought by a trust which purchased stock in defendant North-gate. Northgate is a Canadian corporation which has substantial interests in companies that own and operate ore mines. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as well as exchanges in other countries. The four individual defendants are officers and directors of Northgate.

Plaintiff moves for class certification. The proposed class is defined as all. persons who purchased or otherwise acquired the common stock of Northgate from March 24, 1989 through November 16, 1990. Defendants oppose certification, claiming that plaintiff is not a proper class representative. In the alternative, defendants argue that the proposed class must be limited.

The motion to certify a class is granted. The class definition will be described hereafter.

THE COMPLAINT

The complaint alleges that defendants violated § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and SEC Rule 10b-5. The allegations relate to a large gold mine in northern Canada, called the Colomae Mine, in which Northgate had an ownership interest. The claim is that there were misrepresentations by Northgate as to the potential profitability of that mine. The complaint identifies Northgate’s 1988 Annual Report, released in March 1989, as the first of such misrepresentations. The complaint also alleges that quarterly reports (Forms 10-Q) were subsequently filed by Northgate with the SEC in 1989, and that these contained similar misrepresentations. Northgate issued its 1989 Annual Report in March 1990 and made its annual filing with the SEC in a Form 10-K at that time. Again, it is alleged that these documents misrepresented the prospects of Colomae. It is claimed that there were fur[107]*107ther misrepresentations in two Forms 10-Q, filed for the first two quarters of 1990, and that false information found its way into an August 1990 newspaper article circulated in the United States.

According to the complaint, the actual facts about Colomac, which were adverse, came to light in the third quarter 1990 Form 10-Q, which was filed with the SEC on November 13, 1990. This document stated that Northgate would take a $68.4 million charge against earnings because of Colomac. The report explained that the reason for this was a decline in gold prices and negative consequences of a change in Canadian-United States exchange rates.

It is alleged that on November 5, 1990 Northgate stock was selling on the New York Stock Exchange for $3 per share, and that by November 16 the price had dropped to $1.12 per share.

The complaint alleges that plaintiff is a trust which purchased 17,000 shares of Northgate’s common stock on the New York Stock Exchange during the proposed class. According to the complaint there are approximately 15,000 common shareholders of Northgate and 10,500,000 shares were traded during the proposed class period.

DISCUSSION

There appears to be no challenge to the fact that certain of the criteria for a class action are met. Clearly, the number of potential claimants is sufficient to make a class action desirable, and it appears obvious that the common questions of law and fact predominate over individual questions.

However, defendants make two contentions. They urge that plaintiffs claims are not typical of those of the class and that plaintiff is not an adequate class representative. Also, defendants contend that, even if these issues are resolved in favor of plaintiff, and this- is declared to be a proper class action, the class should be limited to persons purchasing Northgate stock on the New York Stock Exchange. According to defendants, persons purchasing on foreign exchanges should be excluded from the class.

The argument about typicality is that the trustee of plaintiffs trust, Nathan Gordon, obtained certain information about Northgate which was not generally ascertained by the potential class members. Defendants allege that Gordon had a telephone conversation with a Northgate officer at a certain point during the time the trust was making its purchase. Also, defendants point out that Gordon was a shareholder of a company affiliated with Northgate, and obtained certain information about Northgate and Colomac by way of materials issued by this affiliated company.

In the view of the court none of these circumstances indicates that the claim of plaintiff is untypical to an extent that would disqualify plaintiff from representing the class. The fact that Gordon may have obtained certain supplemental information does not take away in any substantial degree from the basic contention of the Gordon trust that it relied on the integrity of the market and the truthfulness of the information which was influencing that market. The court rules that plaintiffs claim is sufficiently typical of the class claims as to make plaintiff a proper representative in this regard.

Defendants argue that the Gordon trust is revocable and therefore cannot be counted on to pursue this action to the end. Defendants also argue that Gordon lacks sufficient knowledge of the facts to be a class representative. Neither of these claims has any weight. There is no indication that the Gordon trust, having made a very substantial investment in Northgate, will be dissolved so that it cannot pursue its own claim and the claims of class members. Also, it is familiar law that a class representative need not have personal knowledge of the evidence and the law involved in pursuing a litigation. It is the lawyer’s task to prepare the case both on the facts and the law.

Plaintiff is an adequate class representative.

It is now necessary to deal with defendants’ contention that the proposed class definition is too broad. The problem raised by the defendants arises from the fact that Northgate stock is traded on the Toronto, Montreal and London stock exchanges, as [108]*108well as on the New York Stock Exchange. It further appears that the alleged misrepresentations were authored entirely in Canada, although they appear in documentation filed with the SEC in the United States and were to some extent circulated in the United States. This gives rise to the argument that the federal court in New York has no subject matter jurisdiction over claims of persons who bought the Northgate stock on the Toronto, Montreal and London stock exchanges.

Since the Securities Exchange Act is silent as to its extraterritorial application, courts have developed two tests for determining the subject matter jurisdiction over foreign transactions. The Second Circuit has stated:

Under the “conduct” test, a federal court has subject matter jurisdiction if the defendant’s conduct in the United States was more than merely preparatory to the fraud, and particular acts or culpable failures to act within the United States directly caused losses to foreign investors abroad. A federal court also has jurisdiction under the “effects” test where illegal activity abroad causes a “substantial effect” within the United States.

Alfadda v. Fenn, 935 F.2d 475, 478 (2d Cir. 1991).

Plaintiff contends that there was sufficient “conduct” by Northgate in the United States to confer subject matter jurisdiction on this court over claims involving purchases both on the New York Stock Exchange and foreign stock exchanges.

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148 F.R.D. 105, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3990, 1993 WL 116101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nathan-gordon-trust-v-northgate-exploration-ltd-nysd-1993.