Scott Wells and The City of Ann Arbor Employees’ Retirement System have filed a lawsuit against Sam K. Reed, Dennis F. Riordan, Christopher D. Sliva, and Treehouse Foods, Inc., in the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District. The case ID is 1-23-0502 and the filing date is March 22, 2024.
The plaintiffs allege that the defendants misled TreeHouse’s shareholders by falsely stating that newly acquired companies were being successfully integrated into TreeHouse’s operations. This resulted in a sudden drop in TreeHouse's shares by 20%, causing billions of dollars in market capitalization loss. Despite this fall, the individual defendants allegedly received millions of dollars in compensation.
In their defense, the defendants argue that the appellate court should take judicial notice of a letter sent by Treehouse's board rejecting plaintiffs' demands. However, plaintiffs seek to amend their complaint to respond to this refusal.
The plaintiffs are seeking a reversal of the dismissal with prejudice of their amended and consolidated shareholder-derivative complaint and reinstatement of the consolidated amended complaint for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.