STEVENSON, Md., Aug. 29, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The securities litigation law firm of Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation, announces that a class action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California on behalf of purchasers of Edison International (“Edison” or the “Company”) (NYSE:EIX) securities during the period between July 31, 2014 and June 24, 2015, inclusive (the “Class Period”). Investors who wish to become proactively involved in the litigation have until September 4, 2015 to seek appointment as lead plaintiff.
If you have suffered a loss from investment in Edison securities purchased on or after July 31, 2014 and held through the revelation of negative information during and/or at the end of the Class Period, as described below, and would like to learn more about this lawsuit and your ability to participate as a lead plaintiff, without cost or obligation to you, please visit our website at http://www.browerpiven.com/currentsecuritiescases.html. You may also request more information by contacting Brower Piven either by email at hoffman@browerpiven.com or by telephone at (410) 415-6616. No class has yet been certified in the above action. Members of the Class will be represented by the lead plaintiff and counsel chosen by the lead plaintiff.
If you wish to choose counsel to represent you and the Class, you must apply to be appointed lead plaintiff and be selected by the Court. The lead plaintiff will direct the litigation and participate in important decisions including whether to accept a settlement for the Class in the action. The lead plaintiff will be selected from among applicants claiming the largest loss from investment in Company securities during the Class Period. Brower Piven also encourages anyone with information regarding the Company’s conduct during the period in question to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others.
The complaint accuses the defendants of violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by virtue of the defendants’ failure to disclose during the Class Period that Edison’s ex parte contacts with the California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) decision makers were more extensive than the Company had reported to CPUC, and that belated disclosure of Edison’s ex parte contacts with CPUC personnel would jeopardize the Company’s $3.3 billion dollar San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (“SONGS”) Settlement. According to the complaint, on February 9, 2015, Southern California Edison (“SCE”) submitted a notice to the CPUC disclosing that a previously unreported ex parte contact between Stephen Pickett (“Pickett”), then an executive vice president at SCE, and Michael Peevey (“Peevey”), then president of the CPUC, had occurred at an industry conference on March 26, 2013; at that time the SONGS Settlement negotiations were ongoing, and Pickett and Peevey’s conversation concerned the future of SONGS and a possible resolution of the CPUC’s investigation; pursuant to the CPUC’s rules, the Company’s failure to timely report the ex parte meeting between Pickett and Peevey represented a possible violation of CPUC rules governing ex parte contact between CPUC decision makers and interested parties. Also according the complaint, prompted by SCE’s belated disclosure and amidst growing public criticism of the relationship between the CPUC and California’s utilities, the CPUC ordered SCE to turn over additional communications regarding the SONGS Settlement’s negotiation; on April 29, 2015, SCE duly complied. After reviewing the additional SCE documents, an attorney for the Utility Reform Network (“TURN”) stated that the documents showed “a number of unreported ex parte contacts and that Edison violated the rules by not reporting those communications.” Further, the complaint alleges that following an article published on May 4, 2015 by SFGate that reported that SCE’s newly released documents revealed a previously unreported May 2014 meeting between Peevey and SCE executives, at which the parties discussed donating millions of dollars to a UCLA institute at which Peevey held an advisory post, and following the June 22, 2015 release by the law firm Strumwasser & Woocher of an independent report commissioned by the CPUC (the “Strumwasser Report”) describing such ex parte meetings as “frequent, pervasive, and at least sometimes outcome-determinative” and recommending banning them altogether in rate cases, and following TURN’s June 24, 2015 filing, in response to the Strumwasser Report and SCE’s earlier disclosures, of an application with the CPUC that charged SCE with “fraud by concealment” and urged the CPUC to set aside the SONGS Settlement and reopen its investigation, the value of Edison shares declined substantially.
Attorneys at Brower Piven have extensive experience in litigating securities and other class action cases and have been advocating for the rights of shareholders since the 1980s. If you choose to retain counsel, you may retain Brower Piven without financial obligation or cost to you, or you may retain other counsel of your choice. You need take no action at this time to be a member of the class.
CONTACT:
Charles J. Piven
Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation
1925 Old Valley Road
Stevenson, Maryland 21153
Telephone: 410-415-6616
hoffman@browerpiven.com