On April 9, 2009, US District Judge P. Kevin Castel of the SDNY granted plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration and re-opened the securities class action against Vodafone, which has been dismissed in November 2008.
Judge Castel stated that the initial November 24 order granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because it concluded that the complaint failed to satisfy the jurisdictional “conduct test” of Morrison v. Nat’l Australia Bank Ltd., 547 F.3d 167 (2d Cir. 2008), as to a non-United States plaintiff bringing securities fraud claims over allegedly fraudulent conduct that occurred outside of the United States. The decision was directed exclusively toward subject matter jurisdiction over the claims of plaintiff The City of Edinburgh Council on Behalf of the Lothian Pension Fund.
Plaintiffs moved for reconsideration, pointing out that shortly before the motion to dismiss was filed, Sterling Heights Police & Fire Retirement System was added as a plaintiff specifically “to address any perceived concerns about [Lothian’s] ability to represent the entire Class at this juncture in the litigation.”
Judge Castel granted the motion, finding that the Court’s ruling that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the entire action overlooked Sterling Heights’s status as a plaintiff.
