WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) – A shareholder is suing Walmart, alleging misleading statements from the company over a period of four years concealed what became an opioid lawsuit brought by the federal government.
The company tried to prevent the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit by filing a preemptive one of their own, but in late December the feds filed suit anyway over opioid prescriptions that were filled by the company’s pharmacies.
Walmart has said the case is an attempt to shift blame onto it to cover up the failures of the Drug Enforcement Agency, which issued increasing quotas for opioid manufacturers to meet as the country’s addiction crisis grew worse.
Attorneys at The Rosen Law Firm of New York City and Farnan LLP of Wilmington, Del., teamed for a Jan. 20 lawsuit in Delaware federal court.
It alleges Walmart’s stock price fell almost 2% in the two days after the DOJ lawsuit was announced.
“As a result of Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the company’s common shares, Plaintiff and other class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” the suit says.
On Dec. 23, the last day of the proposed class period, Walmart traded at $144.20 per share, down from the $146.95 it traded at two days earlier.