Theratx, Inc. v. James W. Duncan

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Theratx, Inc. v. James W. Duncan

Opinion

PUBLISH

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT U.S. COURT OF APPEALS _______________ ELEVENTH CIRCUIT JUNE 25, 2001 No. 99-11451 THOMAS K. KAHN _______________ CLERK

D. C. Docket No. 95-03193-CV-RWS-1

THERATX, INC.,

Plaintiff-Counter-Defendant- Appellee-Cross-Appellant,

versus

JAMES DUNCAN, TIMOTHY S. SMICK, et al.,

Defendants-Counter-Claimants- Appellants-Cross-Appellees.

______________________________

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ______________________________ (June 25, 2001)

Before BIRCH, BARKETT and ALARCON*, Circuit Judges. _____________ *Honorable Arthur L. Alarcon, U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit, sitting by designation. BIRCH, Circuit Judge:

In TheraTx, Inc. v. Duncan, 234 F.3d 1240 (11th Cir. 2000), we certified the

following question to the Supreme Court of Delaware:

What is the proper measure of damages when a defendant’s contractual obligation to cause a shelf registration, under which plaintiff is entitled to trade a restricted stock, to remain in effect for a specified period of time is breached by defendant’s temporary suspension of plaintiffs’ ability to trade the restricted stock?

Id. at 1251. After a thorough review of the question, the Supreme Court of

Delaware issued the following opinion:

Under Delaware law, contract damages caused by the temporary suspension of a shelf registration in violation of the terms of a contract are measured by calculating the difference between (1) the highest intermediate price of the shares during a reasonable time at the beginning of the restricted period and (2) the average market price of the shares during a reasonable period after the restrictions were lifted.

Duncan v. TheraTx, Inc., __ A.2d __ (Del. June 1, 2001).

Accordingly, we REMAND the to the district court with instructions to enter

damages for Duncan, et al., calculated in the manner described by the Supreme

Court of Delaware.

2

Reference

Status
Published