Firestone Stockholders Sue

PHILADELPHIA--Lawyers have filed a class action lawsuit against Bridgestone/Firestone Corp. on behalf of stockholders who allege that company officials hid information about the company’s faulty Firestone tires. The suers say they were deprived of the proper value of their stock market investments.

The lawsuit was filed in by the law firm of Barrack, Rodos & Bacine in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.

The lawsuit charges that “Bridgestone and its U.S. subsidiary, Bridgestone/Firestone, had knowledge of thousands of claims for and complaints concerning ATX tire failures, especially ATX tires manufactured at Bridgestone/Firestone’s Decatur, Ill., plant during and after a bitter 1994-1996 strike, due to design and manufacturing defects that resulted in over 2,200 rollover accidents, over 500 serious injuries and approximately 150 fatalities by 2000. Nevertheless...Bridgestone made false and misleading statements about the effectiveness and integrity of its product design, testing and manufacturing processes and the quality and safety of its products, while concealing its growing awareness of the problems with and defects in the ATX radial tires.”

The complaint alleges that Bridgestone also “failed to properly account for or disclose theprospective cost of these product failures and associated remedial costs, thereby materially misstating its financial condition and reporting inflated earnings.”

For more information, contact www.barrack.com.