STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 19, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- On 14 May 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a Summary Order affirming the judgment of Senior Judge Milton Pollack of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissing Donovan v. American Skandia Life Assurance Corp. et al. with prejudice. This litigation concerns activities prior to the May 1, 2003 acquisition of American Skandia Life Assurance Corp. by Prudential Financial, Inc. from Skandia Insurance Company Ltd. As previously disclosed, the responsibility for the outcome of this case was for the account of Skandia Insurance Company Ltd. as a result of the agreement with Prudential Financial, Inc. concerning the sale of American Skandia.
The lawsuit purported to represent a class of investors who during the period December 1997 to October 2000 purchased American Skandia variable annuity products for the purpose of funding a "qualified" (i.e., tax- deferred) retirement account. The Plaintiffs alleged that the prospectuses for these variable annuity products contained material misstatements and omissions concerning the suitability of such products as funding vehicles for tax qualified accounts in violation of U.S. securities laws.
The Court of Appeals agreed with Judge Pollack's conclusion that the plaintiff's claims were without legal merit. In dismissing the plaintiffs' claims, Judge Pollack had written that, "The disclosures in the Prospectuses, taken in context, conclusively disprove the materiality of the alleged omissions and are thus fatal to the Plaintiffs' claims."
"The Court of Appeals decision affirms both Judge Pollack's conclusions and Skandia's previously stated belief that the claims raised by the lawsuit were without merit," comments Jan-Mikael Bexhed, Skandia's General Counsel.
This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net
The following files are available for download:
http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/05/19/20040519BIT00160/wkr0001.doc
http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/05/19/20040519BIT00160/wkr0002.pdf