USA: Court Dismisses Lawsuit Against Quaker Fabric
Quaker Fabric Corporation (Nasdaq: QFAB) today reported that the United States District Court in Boston had dismissed in its entirety litigation filed in September 1998 against the company and certain of its officers and directors alleging that the company failed to make adequate disclosures in connection with its June 1998 public stock offering. In a 27-page decision issued on June 13, 2000, District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock found that "none of the allegations" asserted supported a securities law claim against any of the defendants.Larry Liebenow, president and CEO of Quaker Fabric commented: "In today's business environment, lawsuits of this type are all too common. We take our fiduciary duties to our shareholders very seriously and had exercised great care to ensure the accuracy and adequacy of the disclosures in our June 1998 offering documents. We, therefore, believed this lawsuit to be meritless from the outset and had instructed our attorneys to seek dismissal as soon as possible. We are most gratified that the Court, after carefully analyzing our motion to dismiss and the underlying public disclosures, dismissed all of the claims."Quaker Fabric Corporation is a leading manufacturer of woven upholstery fabrics for furniture markets in the United States and abroad, and the largest producer of Jacquard upholstery fabric in the world. For the year ended January 1, 2000, the company had net sales of $250.8 million, net income of $2.1 million, and diluted and basic earnings per share of $0.13. For its most recent quarter ended January 1, 2000, the company had net sales of $75.0 million, net income of $2.2 million, and diluted and basic earnings per share of $0.14.
June 20, 2000