On December 6, 2006, the defendants in the Metropolitan Mortgage and Summit Securities investor class action lawsuit filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit, collectively advancing 19 separate arguments as to why they should be able to avoid liability to the plaintiff investors.  On June 8, 2007, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington heard oral argument on the defendants’ motions.  On November 5, 2007, the Court issued a 78-page opinion refusing to dismiss any of the defendants from the case.  Accordingly, the defendants must now address the merits of the plaintiffs’ securities fraud claims that sales of securities of Metropolitan and Summit were fraudulent because the defendants prepared, contributed to or utilized offering documents that falsely represented the financial condition of the companies or the value of the securities.  While the Court did find that the plaintiffs’ 317-page Complaint contained some flaws, the Court granted plaintiffs permission to amend their Complaint to correct these deficiencies.  The class action plaintiffs are represented by GTH attorneys Mike Shaffer, Brad Jones, and Ken Kieffer and co-counsel at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.