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PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A county court dismissed a lawsuit in which Sovereign Bancorp Inc.'s largest shareholder sought access to the thrift's books and records, but left open the possibility that the suit could be refiled.
Relational Investors LLC filed a false affidavit and two false verifications and "must now bear the consequences of its conduct," Berks County Judge Albert A. Stallone ruled. But Stallone said Relational can choose to refile the case because its conduct was "not fraudulent, or undertaken with the specific intent to mislead the Court."
Stallone found that Relational filed documents containing facts that had not yet occurred at the time they were dated. Citing a prior court case, Stallone wrote that certain improper procedures, while common, amounted to a "sloppy method which generates even more disrespect for the law and those who work with it."
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