Nucor Loses Bid to Reinstate Libel Lawsuit Against Prudential
2008-04-24 16:15 (New York)


By Linda Sandler
     April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Nucor Corp., the largest U.S.
steelmaker by market value, lost a bid to reinstate a libel and
unfair trade practices lawsuit against Prudential Equity Group
LLC and two former analysts for comments made in a report.
     Nucor, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, sued Prudential
Equity Group and metals analysts John Tumazos and Paretosh Misra
in January 2007 after they wrote the company might trigger
antitrust lawsuits and had ``monopoly dreams.'' An appeals court
in North Carolina upheld an April 2007 lower court ruling that
analysts couldn't be sued for libel for expressing opinions.
     Nucor claimed the analysts libeled them by writing that
``Alienated customers may file antitrust lawsuits as has been
done in the electrode, container board OSB, or other sectors,''
and, ``Nucor needs to wake up from its monopoly dreams.''
     The court said the first statement wasn't libelous because
it uses rhetoric and doesn't allege ``specific wrongful conduct''
by Nucor. The second remark ``is also an opinion without any
alleged facts on which we could find grounds for a claim of libel
per se,'' the court said in an opinion filed April 15.
     The unfair trade practices allegations could not survive
without the libel claim to support them, the appeals court ruled.
     Prudential Financial Inc., the second-biggest U.S. life
insurer, closed its Prudential Equity Group unit last year
because it was not profitable.
     Gregory Murphy of Moore & Van Allen, a lawyer for Nucor,
wasn't available for comment according to his office.
     Tumazos, later founded Holmdel, New Jersey-based Very
Independent Research LLC. He wasn't immediately available to
comment. Misra could not immediately be found for comment.
     The case is Nucor Corp. v. Prudential Equity Group LLC, No.
07-1228, North Carolina Court of Appeals (Mecklenburg County).

*T
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*T

--Editors: Patrick Oster, David E. Rovella

To contact the reporters on this story:
Linda Sandler in New York at +1-212-617-2398 or
lsandler@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Patrick Oster at +1-212-617-4088 or poster@bloomberg.net.

[TAGINFO]

NUE US <Equity> CN
PRU US <Equity> CN


NI LAW
NI LAWSUITS
NI CORPFIN
NI COS
NI FIN
NI NY
NI STEEL
NI NC



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-0- Apr/24/2008 20:15 GMT