Lawsuit against Ocean Spray withdrawn2/28/01 The law suit filed last December (see Stressline articles) has been dismissed without prejudice* by the plaintiffs, Ocean Spray growers Howard Morse, Garfield Demarco and Lawrence Harju. In a letter to Ocean Spray growers, Harju expressed the belief that the 37% vote of support at the Ocean Spray Annual Meeting in February for the release of information generated by professionals who studied the cooperative was significant. He noted that even the brief summary which was given at the Annual Meeting placed the value of Ocean Spray at over $1.5 billion. The plaintiffs and their supporters do not feel that the management summary of the requested information was thorough or unbiased; but they say the result of the vote expresses the view of the majority of shares and thus there is no useful purpose in continuing a campaign for the release of this information. The plaintiffs and their supporters have not ruled out reopening discussion of this topic should grass roots support among Ocean Spray growers increase. They intend to continue to work towards improving the director nomination process, which has recently been changed so growers have little if any say as to who will be on the Board. Harju writes that the group "does not feel that continuing to monitor business condition" and that "continuing educational efforts among growers pose and threat to the 'turnaround plan.' " He says that a well-educated grower is a helpful grower and says this his group continues "to support free discussion of any pertinent issues and are happy to provide any information growers might consider useful in furthering the growers' financial recovery."
|