On July 25, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas partially granted plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in a long-running securities fraud class action against Halliburton. Erica P. John Fund v. Halliburton Co., No. 3:02-CV-1152-M, 2015 WL 4522863 (N.D. Tex. July 25, 2015) (Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn). The decision flags the ongoing issues in the battle by defendants for pre-certification decision of as many issues as possible. Reviewing the decision is also useful as a catalogue of expert issues for defendants litigating price impact at the class-certification stage.
Background
In Halliburton, plaintiffs alleged a series of misrepresentations concerning Halliburton’s expected returns and potential exposure to certain liabilities which artificially inflated the company’s stock price. When Halliburton subsequently made corrective disclosures, the company’s stock declined and investors suffered losses. In 2008, plaintiffs’ motion for class certification was denied for failure to demonstrate loss causation. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed, the Supreme Court vacated the judgment, holding that securities fraud plaintiffs do not need to prove loss causation for class certification. Halliburton I.1
