Dura No Help to Sears

The Sears securities class action was filed in 2003, but we’re still dealing with motions to dismiss. The third round of them actually. This time, it’s all about (our old friend) loss causation, with Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer (N.D. Ill.) taking on the Defendants’ Dura arguments -- and pretty much shooting them all down. As she put it, “to the extent Defendants suggest that Dura imposed stricter fact-pleading requirements for the economic loss and causation elements of an action under § 10(b), Defendants are mistaken.”

Judge Pallmeyer also commented that “Defendants' arguments are inconsistent,” and “more importantly, however, the kind of specificity the Defendants seek is simply not required at the pleading stage.”

You can read Ong v. Sears, issued October 18, 2006 at U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80294.

Nugget: “Dura has not abrogated Caremark or changed the law in the Seventh Circuit."