In re the Gap Stores Securities Litigation

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

The thirteen cases involved in this multidistrict securities litigation are before the court on plaintiffs’ motion to certify a defendant class of underwriters. 1 Previous to this motion and by stipulation of the parties, plaintiffs amended their uniformly stated complaints to add Bacon, Whipple & Co. as a defendant and to allege, with respect to counts Three, Four and Five of the complaint, a class of defendant underwriters represented by the three individually named underwriters. Plaintiffs here move the court to certify the alleged class more particularly described as: “All those underwriter firms who entered into the May 19, 1976 ‘Agreement Among Underwriters’ which formally established the underwriting syndicate for the initial distribution of 1.2 million shares of common stock of the Gap Stores, Inc.” The designated “generals” of the opposition—Lehman Brothers, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fenner & Smith, Inc. and Bacon, Whipple & Co.—vigorously decline the commission.

Previous to this motion the court certified a plaintiff class described as: “All persons who purchased or otherwise acquired the common stock of the Gap Stores, Inc. from May 19,…