Dennis Bryant
Bryant’s Maritime Blog – 8 December 2015

In an unpublished decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court dismissing plaintiffs’ complaint against various manufacturers and sellers of global positioning system devices alleging securities fraud and related claims under federal and state laws. Plaintiffs had invested in LightSquared, Inc., a company that sought to develop a new wireless broadband communications system.

Plaintiffs alleged, among other things, that defendants had deliberately designed their GPS receivers to experience “overload interference” from out-of-band receptions (OOBRs) that would render the receivers ineffective and that defendants fraudulently concealed and misrepresented this fact even though they were aware that LightSquared’s plan to develop its new wireless network would cause such OOBR interference. The court found, among other things, that plaintiffs lacked standing to sue for securities fraud. Harbinger Capital Partners v. Deere & Company, No. 15-408-cv (2nd Cir., December 7, 2015)

Many thanks to our friend Dennis Bryant for this.