Litigation Team Wins Dismissal of Securities Class Action Lawsuit Against Keurig Green Mountain

A Ropes & Gray litigation team has secured the dismissal of a securities class action lawsuit against Keurig Green Mountain.

The plaintiff's consolidated amended class action complaint, filed on November 6, 2015 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, was dismissed by Judge Vince Chhabria, with leave to amend on March 2, 2016. On July 13, 2016, the Second Consolidated Amended Class Action Complaint filed by the plaintiff was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice by stipulation of Judge Chhabria.

The plaintiff contended that the company made false statements regarding the technological success of its key new product, the Keurig 2.0 to investors. The second amended complaint relied heavily on statements from six confidential witnesses. In the course of the proceedings, Ropes & Gray’s litigation team investigated and was able to identify and interview four out of the six confidential witnesses. Each of these confidential witnesses stated that the second amended complaint was not accurate, that they had never made the statements attributed to them in the second amended complaint, and that the claims in the second amended complaint were false. Two of these confidential witnesses went so far as to provide sworn affidavits making clear that they had not made the statements attributed to them in the second amended complaint. Based on these facts, Ropes & Gray filed a Rule 11 motion for sanctions. The Court heard oral arguments on Ropes & Gray’s Rule 11 motion for sanctions at the same time it heard Ropes & Gray’s motion to dismiss. After the hearing, where the judge made clear that he had serious concerns with plaintiffs’ counsel’s actions in the case given the Rule 11 motion, the plaintiffs agreed to voluntarily dismiss the complaint with prejudice.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by business & securities litigation partners Randall Bodner, Anne Johnson Palmer and business and securities associate William Davison.