Munger, Tolles & Olson Secures Complete Defense Victory for View, Inc. in Securities Class Action
Members of the Munger, Tolles & Olson securities litigation group received a well-deserved shout-out from The American Lawyer as litigators of the week for securing the complete dismissal of a securities class action against “smart window” manufacturer, View, Inc.
View went public in March 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Later that year, the tech company announced that it was restating its financial statements after conducting an internal investigation related to its warranty liabilities. The securities lawsuit, filed by stockholders in the Northern District of California, claimed that View, its officers and directors, and others who were involved in the SPAC deal failed to properly disclose the warranty liabilities for the company’s smart windows.
In 2023, U.S. District Judge Beth L. Freeman granted MTO’s (and the other co-defendants’) motions to dismiss but granted lead plaintiff leave to amend. Lead plaintiff filed the amended complaint in August 2023, adding a new plaintiff, and MTO and the other co-defendants responded with another motion to dismiss.
On April 10, 2024, Judge Freeman issued an order dismissing the case in full and did not allow the lead plaintiff to amend its complaint. Judge Freeman agreed with MTO’s primary argument that the lead plaintiff lacked standing to pursue its claims because it had sold all its View stock before the key alleged corrective disclosure was made. Because the lead plaintiff was “never a member of the class it was named to represent,” Judge Freeman concluded that lead plaintiff could not simply add a new plaintiff to fix its standing problem.
MTO also represented View in a related SEC investigation, which concluded favorably with settled charges that imposed no monetary penalty and made no findings of intentional fraud.
The MTO defense team included John Berry, John Gildersleeve, Jeremy Lawrence, Lauren Barnett, Henry Shreffler, Robin Schweitzer and Brian Boessenecker.
In addition to The American Lawyer, the matter has garnered media coverage in publications such as Law360 and Bloomberg Law.
About MTO Securities Practice
Our unwavering focus on disposing of shareholder claims quickly and effectively, often in unprecedented circumstances, sets us apart. In recent years, we have guided clients through securities and corporate governance disputes arising from the effects of climate change, the opioid crisis and the “MeToo” movement.
Our securities team is ranked nationally by Chambers USA and in 2024 was named a Securities Practice Group of the Year by Law360. We help solve problems from securities class actions after stock-price declines, to derivative actions against directors and officers, to corporate governance and M&A litigation, to SEC investigations and related pre-litigation challenges.