AT&T Presses Again for Transfer to Dallas of Lead Cable Securities Fraud Case

There’s “no substantive opposition” to AT&T’s motion to transfer to the Northern District of Texas in Dallas the securities fraud class action in which the company is alleged to have made “materially false and misleading statements” about its ownership of legacy telecom cables laden with toxic lead (see 2311270004), said AT&T’s reply memorandum of law Monday (docket 2:23-cv-04064) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark in further support of its motion to transfer. The two AT&T shareholder applicants for lead plaintiff claiming the largest alleged losses, the New York City Public Pension Funds and the New Mexico State Investment Council, “have each filed notices of non-opposition to the transfer,” said the memorandum. Another shareholder, Velliv, Pension & Livsforsikring, has acknowledged that the two other shareholders have larger alleged losses and has said it should be selected as lead plaintiff only in the event the court decides that the other two applicants fail to satisfy Private Securities Litigation Reform Act standards, AT&T said. As to the transfer issue, Velliv doesn’t dispute the merits of AT&T’s motion, but instead suggests that it should be deferred until after the appointment of a lead plaintiff, said the memorandum. “This suggestion lacks merit given that neither party claiming to be the presumptive lead plaintiff opposes transfer,” it said. “Indeed, courts often decide a transfer motion first so that the court determining the lead plaintiff is the same court deciding other issues in the case,” it said.