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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: getgo234 who wrote (26583)	12/5/1997 11:00:00 PM
From: invest04	Respond to of 61433

getgo234...ignore the lawsuit...it's a non-event. the officers and directors have insurance to protect against liability from shareholder lawsuits. It's not a consideration. A lawyer for 20+ years and active day-trader for many, many years...

To: getgo234 who wrote (26583)	12/5/1997 11:00:00 PM
From: Gary Korn	Respond to of 61433

Getgo234, The complaint against ASND and its officers doubtless contained an allegation sufficient to invoke insurance coverage (D&O liability). In fact, that is often the game with these class actions: Hit on the carrier. In any event, my guess is that the carrier will defend (pay the attorneys fees) and indemnify (pay any settlement), so personal exposure essentially is non-existent. Or, in other words, I agree with Stephen Miller. Gary Korn

To: getgo234 who wrote (26583)	12/5/1997 11:31:00 PM
From: Doug Skrypek	Respond to of 61433

Officers of the firm did nothing wrong- this case will get thrown out. There will be no settlement. It will have no bearing on the firms operations.

To: getgo234 who wrote (26583)	12/6/1997 2:36:00 AM
From: Sowbug	Respond to of 61433

Probably not personally liable -- something called the "business judgment rule" says that an officer/director/fiduciary can't be held personally liable for acts falling within his/her discretion, as long as they do in fact exercise their discretion (i.e., don't act capriciously). E.g., you're CEO, you make a really, really bad decision ("Let's price our product at ten times our competitors' prices to give the appearance of quality!") that makes the company tank. The business judgment rule means that the shareholders can vote you out, but they PROBABLY can't sue you. Moreover, most big companies carry insurance for their execs to protect them against costs of defense/judgments. So ASND execs would say "In our business judgment, we decided that it was best to do the things alleged in the complaint," and they're personally off the hook. But your questions are probably irrelevant. I don't think these hare-brained shareholder derivative suits have any reasonable chance of succeeding. Anyone know of one that has? Sowbug, Esq. (insert disclaimer here)