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| 2001 News and Press Releases |
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HEADLINE ARCHIVED:
Priceline Suits Consolidated Group Of Investors With Largest Losses Wins Out In Fight For Lead Plaintiffs Status
By: Scott Brede
Connecticut Law Tribune. October 15, 2001
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Excerpt: Consolidating 22 shareholder suits against Norwalk-based Priceline.-com last month, U.S. District Court Judge Dominic J. Squatrito tapped the group of plaintiffs with the largest monetary losses to lead the charge against the troubled, "name-your-own-price" Internet retailer. The contest for lead plaintiffs status pitted a consortium of six institutional and individual Priceline investors, represented by Colchester's Scott & Scott and three other law firms, against members of an extended family who claim to have lost roughly $600,000 when the company's stock tanked in the fall of 2000. By comparison, Scott & Scott's plaintiffs claim that allegedly misleading statements about Priceline's financial health, made before the stock drop, cost them a collective $57 million. One of the plaintiffs, Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc., alone claims to have suffered a loss of approximately $52 million. … In his Sept. 12 decision in Twardy v. Priceline.com Inc., Squatrito recognized the legislative intent behind the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. One of the main goals of the law, he wrote, was to "eradicate 'lawyer-driven' litigation-that is, litigation initiated by lawyers who recruit large number of shareholders as clients, control the strategy of the lawsuit and collect large fees out of the resulting settlement or judgment." In this matter, however, the plaintiffs represented by Scott & Scott "are not shareholders with relatively small individual losses represented by lawyers who are collaborating for the sole purpose" of becoming lead plaintiffs' counsel in a consolidated action, Squatrito found.
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