Biovail’s long-running battle against several hedge funds and analysts it accused of driving down its stock price has provided lots of drama. Two years ago, Manhattan federal district court Judge Richard Owen sanctioned Biovail for using documents, which were under a protective order, to file a separate RICO suit against the hedge funds and analysts. (Andrew Longstreth wrote a great American Lawyer feature about the embarrassing hearings before Owen in 2007, in which Biovail’s lawyers at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman and Howrey blamed each other for the screw-up.) Then, in February, a couple of plaintiffs lawyers were sanctioned by Newark federal district court Judge Stanley Chesler, who said they’d copied Biovail’s RICO suit in filing a shareholders class against the same hedge funds and analysts. (In a harshly worded ruling (pdf), Chesler also dismissed the suit.)
Now comes what we hope will be the final word in Biovail’s aborted campaign against the hedge funds. On Thursday, New Jersey state court Judge Donald Goldman dismissed Biovail’s trade libel and conspiracy claims against SAC Capital (pdf). In most Litigation Daily posts, this would go without saying, but Goldman didn’t sanction any lawyers in his ruling.
