Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Relaxed Timeliness Requirements for Rule 11 Motions under the PSLRA

From In re Star Gas Secs. Litig., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103475 (D. Conn. Sept. 30, 2010):

Plaintiffs contend that Defendants' motion was untimely filed on April 3, 2007, because judgment entered against Plaintiffs on August 23, 2006. Although PSLRA Section 78u-4(c), which mandates that a court conduct a inquiry under Rule 11(b) "upon final adjudication of the action" includes no other time requirement, Plaintiffs look to the time-limits for moving to alter or amend a judgment (14 days) and for motions under Rule 11(c) (21 days) to support their argument that Defendants failed to move for the PSLRA-mandated inquiry in a timely manner. However, Plaintiffs cite no other authority for their contention that the PSLRA requires a motion for a Rule 11 inquiry be filed within a particular time-frame. More significantly, Plaintiffs moved to modify the judgment under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 59(e) and 60(b) two weeks after judgment entered, and Defendants awaited the Court's ruling on that motion finally adjudicating the action, before moving under Section 78u-4(c) for a mandatory Rule 11 inquiry. Even if Section 78u-4(c) imposed a clear time limit for seeking a Rule 11 inquiry, the relevant date from which that time limit would run would have been March 23, 2009, the date the Court ruled on Plaintiffs' motion to modify the judgment, which was only eleven days before Defendants so moved. Therefore, Defendants' motion was timely.

Note that the sanctions inquiry under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act is mandatory and not dependent on a motion.

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