Making Room for More Turkey...

Well, it's time to finish cleaning out the overflowing "to blog about" folder.

CV Therapeutics Settles Class and Derivative Complaints

According to their latest 10-Q, CV Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CVTX), has reached a preliminary agreement to settle the class and derivative litigation pending against the company and certain of the company's officers and directors.

The class action is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California before Judge Susan Illston, while the derivative litigation is pending in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County.

The settlement in the securities class action calls for CV's insurers to pay "$13.5 million to settle all claims and to pay the court-approved fees of plaintiff's counsel." Of interest, the 10-Q notes that the company:

will participate in dispute resolution proceedings with an insurer over whether or not we will reimburse that insurer for a portion of the insurer's contribution to the settlement. The amount of our reimbursement will not exceed $2.25 million, and may be a lesser amount or zero.

Under the terms of the settlement in the derivative action, the company has:

agreed to implement certain non-material corporate governance changes, and our insurers will pay the court-approved fees of plaintiff's counsel.

David Crossen is lead plaintiff and Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP is lead counsel in the CV Therapeutics litigation.

A copy of the consolidated amended complaint in the class action is available here.

Robbins Umeda & Fink LLP is lead counsel in the derivative action.

The CV Therapeutics litigation was last discussed here, regarding a decision by Magistrate Judge Edward M. Chen on electronic discovery back in August.

HCA Settles Merger Related Litigation

It's old news now, given that on Friday the company announced that the merger had been completed, but on November 8, HCA Inc. (NYSE: HCA), announced the settlement of the consolidated class action lawsuit filed in the Chancery Court for Davidson County, Tennessee in connection with the acquisition of HCA by a group of private equity funds and HCA's management.

Barrett, Johnston & Parsley and Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP are co-lead counsel in the HCA merger litigation

As noted here last week, an antitrust class action has been filed against more than a dozen private equity firms (including the firms involved in the HCA acquisition) alleging that the private equity firms conspired to artificially lower the valuations of corporations that the firms were acquiring.

Bradley Pharmaceuticals State Derivative Lawsuits Dismissed

Earlier this month, Bradley Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: BDY) announced the dismissal of a consolidated derivative lawsuit pending against certain of the company's officers and directors in the Essex County (New Jersey) Superior Court.

As noted in Bradley's latest 10-Q, this is hardly the end of Bradley's securities litigation odyssey.

A federal securities class action is still pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against the company and certain of its officers and directors, and the motion to dismiss the consolidated class action complaint (here, via Stanford) was denied earlier this year.

Lead plaintiffs in the federal class action are the Retirement Plan for Chicago Transit Authority Employees, American Welding Co., Inc. and Edward R. Greene (American's president) and Abbey Spanier Rodd Abrams & Paradis, LLP are lead counsel.

Additionally, a federal derivative lawsuit is still pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against the company and certain of its officers and directors. Curiously, the company chooses to describe the federal derivative action (but not the state derivative action) as an "alleged derivative complaint."

Motions to Dismiss Largely Denied in Brocade Securities Litigation

According to news reports (San Jose Mercury News) Judge Charles R. Breyer has denied in part and granted in part the motions to dismiss in the consolidated securities class action pending against Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD).

According to these civil minutes, Judge Breyer denied the motions to dismiss filed by Brocade, and Brocade's former CEO, Greg Reyes, and former CFO, Antonio Canova, and granted the motions to dismiss filed by KPMG, LLP and Brocade's audit committee, but granted plaintiffs leave to file an amended complaint.

The Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System is Lead Plaintiff and Nix, Patterson & Roach LLP and Patton, Roberts, McWilliams & Capshaw LLP are co-lead counsel in the Brocade litigation.

A copy of the consolidated class action complaint in the securities class action is available from Stanford, here.

The lead plaintiff briefing process is fairly unique, in that when the motion is contested, each party files opening, opposition and reply briefs, as opposed to the usual course in federal litigation where one party files an opening and reply brief and the other party files an opposition. A review of the Brocade pleadings available on the Stanford website, here, indicates that the lead plaintiff briefing got somewhat more complicated, with three movants (Intrepid Capital Management; the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System; and the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension & Retirement System) filing nearly twenty briefs including sur-replies, supplemental briefs, responses to sur-replies, second supplemental briefs, well you get the picture.

Daily Trivia: Ok, so it isn't related to any of the above cases, but it is seasonally topical.

Cranberry sauce was invented by Marcus L. Urann, a lawyer and cranberry grower from South Hanson, Massachusetts in 1912. Urann went on to found what is now known as Ocean Spray with two other farmers in 1930. The jellied variety that will grace millions of tables later this week showed up on the scene in 1941. Thanks to The Birmingham News for the tip.

For those wanting more trivia tidbits to impress relatives, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension has a cranberry trivia timeline here, and two University of Massachusetts economics professors have authored a paper, The U.S. Cranberry Industry: Historical Changes and the Current Situation that provides a long and thorough history of, you guessed it, the cranberry industry in America.