Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
Some companies might want to make sure to be very careful before making large acquisitions. Otherwise they might find themselves fighting a legal battle for something the company being acquired did years ago. Such is the case for HSBC Holdings Plc, a British bank, which has recently been hit with the largest judgment yet made in U.S. courts. The judgment, a record breaking $2.46 billion, was made against HSBC by U.S. Judge Ronald Guzman following a jury trial in a class action against Household International, which is now a division of HSBC.
According to the class action lawsuit, Household International’s chief executive, chief financial officers, and head of consumer lending all made false and misleading statements about the company in order to artificially inflate the company’s share price. The lawsuit further alleges that Household International engaged in predatory lending and intentionally concealed the quality of its loan portfolio.
Reports of Household International’s lending practices began to reach the public in 2001, which resulted in the company’s share prices sinking to the lowest it had been in seven years. The class action lawsuit was filed against Household International in 2002, the same year that HSBC bought out the U.S. lender. Now HSBC is stuck dealing with the lawsuit. A spokesman for the company sounded confident however, saying that HSBC plans to appeal and believes that it has a strong case. Despite its embroilment in the current legal battle, HSBC seems not to regret the purchase of the U.S. lending company. On the contrary, it appears to be eager to continue the battle against the class action lawsuit. The spokesman did add, however, that the matter has been noted in HSBC’s regulatory filings. It might affect future acquisitions made by the British bank after all.
The case is notable because securities fraud class actions almost always settle before reaching a jury. Defendants frequently prefer to settle outside of court to avoid the negative media attention as well as to avoid the extremely high judgments. When a class is certified by a judge, it frequently puts pressure on the defendant to settle the case outside of court, given that class action status gives the plaintiffs greater leverage.
Plaintiffs in securities fraud class action lawsuits generally rely on the “fraud on the market” theory as a key tool in their litigation. This is the theory that the price of a security trading in an efficient market reflects all publicly available information about that security. Working on that premise, the theory assumes that investors rely on material misrepresentations which are reflected in market prices at the time that the security is traded. Like most securities fraud class action lawsuits, the one against Household International also relied on evidence that investors and the market relied on unreliable statements provided by high-level executives at Household International. Because of the misrepresentations of the company and its lending practices, investors were led to buy shares which they would not have otherwise purchased, or were led to buy them at a higher price than that at which they would normally have bought them.
Our Chicago class action and consumer fraud lawyers have been bringing fraud and class action claims for many years. Our Chicago class action attorneys have brought class action cases involving mass consumer product defects, false advertising and failure to honor warranties similar to the claims in this case. We are looking for new class actions or individual consumer cases to pursue involving defective products and other consumer fraud claims. Contact us if you feel you have a claim at our toll free number 630-333-0333 or filling out an online contact form.
Our Chicago consumer rights private law firm handles individual and class action unfair debt collection and other consumer fraud cases that government agencies and public interest law firms such as the Illinois Attorney General may not pursue. Class action lawsuits our law firm has been involved in or spear-headed have led to substantial awards totaling over a million dollars to organizations including the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Consumer Law Center. Lubin Austermuehle is proud of our achievements in assisting national and local consumer rights organizations obtain the funds needed to ensure that consumers are protected and informed of their rights. By standing up to consumer fraud and consumer rip-offs, and in the right case filing consumer protection lawsuits and class-actions you too can help ensure that other consumers’ rights are protected from consumer rip-offs and unscrupulous or dishonest practices.
Our Lake Forest and Highland Park consumer lawyers provide assistance in fair debt collection, consumer fraud and consumer rights cases including in Illinois and throughout the country. You can look here to see a description of the some of the many individual and class-action consumer cases we have handled. You can contact one of our Illinois consumer protection lawyers who can assist in lemon law, unfair debt collection, wage claims, unpaid overtime and other consumer, consumer fraud or consumer class action cases by filling out the contact form at the side of this blog.