The U.S. Supreme Court's big Stoneridge decision in January held that a company can't be held liable in a securities law class action for a violation by another company it was doing business with.
Plaintiffs' lawyers howled. They'd hoped for a new roster of deep-pocket defendants. Others, less connected financially, decried investors not being protected, justice not being served.
Securities and Exchange Commission member Paul S. Atkins summarized the decision in a Jan. 25 summary, "Stoneridge and the Rule of Law" in the Wall Street Journal.
Atkins also rebuts the plaintiffs' lawyers' tired mantra that without their being allowed to sue, laws won't be enforced and the public will suffer. That claim is no more accurate here than it was when California trial lawyers were trying unsuccessfully to block the passage of Proposition 64, which shut down their lucrative business law shakedown lawsuits.