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Abstract: 

In the 18 years since the Supreme Court first charted the pleading standard for loss causation in the 2005 Dura Pharmaceuticals decision, just 12 securities fraud class actions have been tried to verdict, occasioning a dearth of case law addressing the burden of proof of loss causation at trial — particularly with respect to the issue of “disaggregating” the causes of shareholder losses. This article explores three securities fraud trials, including the 2023 trial against Elon Musk and Tesla in San Francisco federal court, and how loss causation played a key role in the verdicts.

Keywords: Loss Causation; Liberty Media Corp. v. Vivendi Universal, S.A.; Hubbard v. BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc.; In re Tesla Securities Litigation

Affiliations:  1: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP.