california state teachers` retirement system

CALIFORNIA STATE TEACHERS’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM INITIATES LEGAL ACTION AGAINST
VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA, INC. IN THE UNITED STATES FOR INFORMATION ABOUT
EMISSIONS FRAUD
Following swiftly from the Bentham Europe global institutional shareholder action commenced in
Germany, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System commenced legal action in the US
against Volkswagen’s subsidiary, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. The US case seeks to
obtain documents relating to Volkswagen’s development and deployment of emissions control
defeat devices for use in the German proceedings. The documents sought by CalSTRS include
documents relating to Volkswagen’s development of NOx emissions control technology,
Volkswagen’s assessments of the consequences of violating US emissions standards, and
Volkswagen’s internal discussions regarding the results of the May 2014 West Virginia
University study and the follow-up investigations by US regulators. It is expected that these
documents will help answer the central questions raised in the German proceedings. The U.S.
Code permits discovery in support of foreign proceedings, while German law does not provide
for such pre-trial discovery.
Commenting on the filing of the application, CalSTRS’ General Counsel Brian Bartow said, "as
a long-term shareholder, CalSTRS values good corporate governance and obtaining documents
from the Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. is a necessary step towards seeking full disclosure
of the company's corporate governance failures and discovering evidence to assist in our case
in Germany seeking to recover shareholder losses caused by such failures."
Dr. Nadine Herrmann of Quinn Emanuel, CalSTRS’ counsel in Germany, said, “obtaining
discovery from Volkswagen in the United States is an important tool to gather additional
evidence for the shareholder action filed in Germany. We are pleased that we have been able to
secure this order, which is yet another example of the seamless integration between our
European and U.S. trial teams working on this matter."
Jeremy Marshall, Chief Investment Officer of Bentham Europe, stated “We say there is no
coincidence between Volkswagen’s willingness to settle the US proceedings and the fact that
the US legal system provides claimants with great abilities to get to the truth via the disclosure
of documents and the taking of oral evidence. Given the fact that the US legal system allows
claimants in CalSTRS’ position to seek a disclosure order from a US court in relation to the
proceedings in Germany, we considered that it was clearly in the best interests of the investor
litigation in Germany to support the application”.
The order was granted by the US Court on 21 July 2016. The next step will be that Quinn
Emanuel will serve a subpoena upon Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. demanding that they
deliver up the documents requested in the subpoena and that subpoena was served upon the
company yesterday.
Contact
Jeremy Marshal
Chief Investment Officer
Bentham Europe Limited
[email protected]
0203 750 1304 (d)
07733 261606 (m)

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