United States Fifth Circuit

In securities-fraud litigation surrounding the collapse of Enron Corp., denials of motions for leave to file suits in state court are affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) leave to file claims that had a four-year statute of limitations should have been granted to allow state courts to determine whether relation-back rules applied to validate the claims; and 2) leave to file claims with a shorter statute of limitations would have been futile and was properly denied, and no tolling doctrine applied. (Revised opinion)

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/08/2008
• Published 09/15/2008

Judges

• PRADO, Circuit Judge:, Before SMITH and PRADO, Circuit Judges, and LUDLUM, District Judge.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Gregory Sean Jez, Sylvia Gerald Davidow, Fleming & Associates, Houston, TX, Jonathan Standish Massey (argued), Bethesda, MD, for Plaintiff-Appellant., Julia B. Cooper, Walston, Wells & Birchall, Birmingham, AL, Jan Nielsen Little, Keker & Van Nest, San Francisco, CA, Craig Smyser, Smyser, Kaplan & Veselka, Houston, TX, Richard Bruce Drubel, Boies, Schiller & Flexner, Hanover, NH, for Fastow., Gregory A. Markel (argued), Ronit Setton, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, New York City, Charles G. King, III, King & Pennington, Houston, TX, for Bank of America Corp., Banc of America Securities, LLC and Bank of America, NA., Richard W. Clary (argued), Julie A North, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York City, Lawrence David Finder, Odean L. Volker, Haynes & Boone, Houston, TX, for Credit Suisse First Boston, Pershing, LLC and Credit Suisse First Boston (USA), Inc., David H. Braff, Jeffrey T. Scott, Marc De Leeuw, Sullivan & Cromwell, New York City, Barry Abrams, Abrams, Scott & Bickley, Houston, TX, for Barclays, PLC and Barclays Capital, Inc., Adam S. Hakki, Shearman & Sterling, New York City, for Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., Robert C. Micheletto, Jones Day, New York City, for Lehman Bros. Holdings, Inc. and Lehman Bros., Inc., Robin C. Gibbs, Gibbs & Bruns, Houston, TX, for Urquhart, Belfer, Blake, Chan, Duncan, Gramm, Jaedicke, Lemaistre, Mendelson, Pereira, Savage, Meyer and Walker., Robert E. Gooding, Jr., Howrey, LLP, Irvine, CA, for Belfer., Barnes H. Ellis, Stoel & Rives, Portland, OR, for Hirko., Jacks C. Nickens, Nickens, Keeton, Lawless, Farrell & Flack, Houston, TX, for Harrison., Victor Tabak, Miller & Chevalier, Washington, DC, for Pereira., Robert Hayden Burns, Liskow & Lewis, Houston, TX, for Mordaunt., Claude L. Stuart, III, Phelps Dunbar, Houston, TX, Michael Steven Shuster, David G. Hille, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, Michael James McNamara, Mark David Kotwick, Seward & Kissell, New York City, for Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank Holding, Royal BK DS Holding, RBC Dominion Sec., Inc., RBC Dominion Sec., Ltd. and RBC Holdings, USA., John M. Newman, David F. Adler, Jones Day, Cleveland, OH, Lee A. Armstrong, Jones Day, New York City, for Royal Bank of Scotland, Nat. Westminster Bank, PLC, Greenwich Natwest Structured Finance, Inc., Greenwich Natwest, Ltd. and Campsite, Ltd., David Elliott Miller, Jones Day, Houston, TX, for Campsite, Ltd.