AKRON (March 23) — A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging securities fraud filed against Goodyear and a group of current and former officers.
The Akron tire maker announced March 22 that U.S. District Judge John Adams ordered the dismissal of the suit, which related to the company´s previous restatement of its financial results. In the ruling, the court found that the plaintiffs had failed to sufficiently set forth particularized facts to support their claim.
"We are pleased that the court has dismissed the lawsuit, which we have always believed to be without merit," said C. Thomas Harvie, Goodyear senior vice president and general counsel.
The original complaints alleged Goodyear filed inaccurate financial information from October 1998 through October 2003, which misled investors and artificially inflated the price of the firm´s stock. The filings were made after Goodyear revealed in October 2003 it overstated its profits by as much as $100 million from 1998 through June 2003, and was restating its financial results to correct the error.
Goodyear has also asked the Court to dismiss two companion cases pending before Judge Adams: a shareholder derivative action and an action based on alleged Employee Retirement Income Security Act violations.