ROBERT MARKEWICH, as Trustee for DEBORAH MARKEWICH, Plaintiff, and CURTIS DELEGARD and LLOYD ANDERSON, Intervenor Plaintiffs, v. ROBERT A. ERSEK, JERALD H. MAXWELL, LARRY A. RASMUSSON, A. NICOL SMITH, ARVID B. EVENSVOLD, and LURIE, EIGER, BESIKOF & CO., Defendants, 98 F.R.D. 9

Summary

Plaintiff sought to represent a class of individuals who purchased certain stocks from a corporation in reliance on the corporation's financial statements disseminated to the public in a suit against the officers and directors of the corporation and an accounting firm. Plaintiff sought to recover damages arising from the alleged misconduct of the defendants in their participation in the issuance of financial reports that allegedly contained false and fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions. Deposition testimony established that the financial statements may have played an insignificant role in plaintiff's decision to purchase the stock because plaintiff appeared to have based his decision to purchase the stock on inside information he alone was privy to. The court therefore found that plaintiff's claim was atypical of the class. The court denied plaintiff's motion for class action certification because certification under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3) requires typicality of the claim.