Boeing Investors Back Damages Model for Class Status on Appeal

Boeing Co. investors offered a sufficient plan for measuring classwide damages to gain certification in their lawsuit over jet safety statements, they told an appellate court.

Their expert, Chad Coffman, provided a damages model based on the plaintiffs’ out-of-pocket losses that’s widely used in securities fraud cases for good reason. This model “perfectly” matches their theory of the airplane-maker’s liability, that shareholders were hurt when they bought stock at prices artificially inflated by misleading safety statements, a pair of institutional investors told the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Siding with Boeing would make even the simplest shareholder ...