Shareholder Donna Biefeldt’s derivative suit against Allstate, its officers, and directors was dismissed by the Illinois circuit court, and a three judge Appellate Court panel had affirmed the lower court’s decision, because her second amended complaint was not precise enough in explaining why it would have been futile to first demand that The Allstate Corp.’s board of directors litigate her claim before filing suit herself, as Delaware law requires. (Opinion delivered by Justice Hoffman, §53, p. 27.)
The only allegations Biefeldt cited supporting that argument are allegations about how Allstate’s audit committee reviews the company’s quarterly financial reports and discussed the process for providing financial and earnings information to analysts, the panel said.
“None of these allegations suggests that the audit directors played any part in formulating or preparing any of the allegedly false disclosures,” it held. (Opinion delivered by Justice Hoffman, §45, p. 22.)
The suit was initially filed on 8-3-17 and terminated on 2-25-22. About four and a half years.