Securities fraud claims ruling [US SC] News
Securities fraud claims ruling [US SC]

Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Broudo, Supreme Court of the United States, April 19, 2005 [ruling that plaintiffs bringing securities fraud claims cannot establish economic loss necessary for such claims by showing that stock prices were inflated at the time of purchase]. Excerpt from the unanimous opinion by Justice Breyer:

A private plaintiff who claims securities fraud must prove that the defendant's fraud caused an economic loss. 109 Stat. 747, 15 U. S. C. §78u—4(b)(4). We consider a Ninth Circuit holding that a plaintiff can satisfy this requirement — a requirement that courts call "loss causa-tion"—simply by alleging in the complaint and subsequently establishing that "the price" of the security "on the date of purchase was inflated because of the misrepresentation." 339 F. 3d 933, 938 (2003) (internal quotation marks omitted). In our view, the Ninth Circuit is wrong, both in respect to what a plaintiff must prove and in respect to what the plaintiffs' complaint here must allege.

Read the full text of the opinion [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.