A New Jersey US district court judge withdrew his decision in a biopharma securities case Wednesday after lawyers complained that his opinion contained numerous errors, including made-up quotes and misstated case outcomes.
Judge Julien Xavier Neals of the US District Court for the District of New Jersey on June 30 denied CorMedix Inc.’s request to dismiss a lawsuit by shareholders. “That opinion and order were entered in error,” according to a notice the court posted in the case docket on Wednesday. “A subsequent opinion and order will follow.”
Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner Andrew Lichtman, who represents CorMedix, wrote Neals on Tuesday, telling the judge he may want to “consider whether amendment or any other action should be taken” in regard to errors he made in his June 30 decision. Lawyers in a separate case earlier this month also pointed out flaws in Neals’ CorMedix opinion, saying it “contains pervasive and material inaccuracies.”
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In the CorMedix case, a class of shareholders alleges the company lied about its drug DefenCath during an ill-fated bid to win US Food and Drug Administration approval.
Neals in his June 30 denial of CorMedix’s motion to dismiss referred to the court in Dang v. Amarin Corp. as describing defendants’ conduct as “classic evidence of scienter,” though that case didn’t contain the quote. He also quoted a court in a case involving tech consulting firm Intelligroup as saying that certifications by company executives became “false statements in their own right,” though that quotation doesn’t exist in the case.
Neals’ opinion referenced a case captioned Stichting Pensioenfonds Metaal en Techniek v. Verizon Commc’ns Inc. in the Southern District of New York, though Lichtman said no such case exists in that venue. “We believe the court was referring to a case with the same caption from the District of New Jersey,” the lawyer wrote.
Lichtman’s letter also noted that the opinion attributes two quotes to CorMedix the company is not alleged to have made. He noted in his letter to Neals, however, that he was not requesting reconsideration of the opinion.
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