Smilovits v. First Solar Incorporated

District Court, D. Arizona·Decided December 17, 2019·No. 2:12-cv-00555·Unknown

Opinion

WO

Mark Smilovits, individually and on behalf of No. CV12-00555-PHX-DGC all others similarly situated, ORDER Plaintiffs, v. First Solar, Inc.; Michael J. Ahearn; Robert J. Gillette; Mark R. Widmar; Jens Meyerhoff; James Zhu; Bruce Sohn; and David Eaglesham, Defendants.

This securities fraud class action is set for trial in January 2020. The parties have filed nine motions to exclude expert testimony under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993). The motions are fully briefed. No party requests oral argument or a Daubert hearing. This order addresses six of the motions. The Court will address the remaining motions in a separate order. I. Background. Defendant First Solar, Inc. produces photovoltaic solar panel modules. Its stock is publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Plaintiffs purchased First Solar stock between April 30, 2008 and February 28, 2012 (the “Class Period”). See Doc. 171 at 22.1

1 The parties have filed multiple motions to file documents under seal, which the Court will address in a separate order. See Docs. 468, 511, 551, 589, 639, 649. The parties have lodged the proposed sealed versions of the documents on the Court’s electronic case The Individual Defendants are First Solar officers and executives who purchased or sold First Solar stock during the Class Period while allegedly concealing information from the market about manufacturing and design defects causing faster power loss in certain modules.2 Steep declines in First Solar’s stock price, beginning on July 29, 2010, followed the departure of First Solar’s CEO, disappointing financial results, and the release of quarterly financial disclosures reporting the product defects. See Doc. 401 at 7-8. First Solar’s stock fell from nearly $300 per share to less than $50 per share during the Class Period. See id. at 2. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants engaged in several acts of fraud during the Class Period, including concealing the product defects, misrepresenting the cost and scope of the defects, and reporting false information on financial statements. Doc. 93 at 7-20. Plaintiffs further allege that when First Solar later disclosed the product defects and attendant financial liabilities to the market, the stock price fell, causing economic loss to Plaintiffs. Id. at 124-41. Plaintiffs assert violations of §§ 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Rule 10b-5. Id. at 135-36. Section 10(b) “makes it unlawful to ‘use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security[,] . . . any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of such rules and regulations as the [SEC] may prescribe.’” In re Oracle Corp. Sec. Litig., 627 F.3d 376, 387 (9th Cir. 2010) (quoting 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b)). Rule 10b-5 forbids, in connection with the purchase or sale of a security, “the making of

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Smilovits v. First Solar Incorporated, (D. Ariz. 2019).

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