A federal court has decertified a shareholder class action accusing Boeing of prioritising profit over safety and overstating its commitment to safe aircraft, prior to an Alaska Airlines January 2024 incident in which a midair cabin panel blew off a B737-9.
Reuters reported that the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals said shareholders, led by Rhode Island’s state treasurer, were unable to show how damages could be calculated on a classwide basis, or how much Boeing’s misrepresentations artificially inflated its stock price at any particular time.
According to circuit judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., the shareholders' damages expert only offered “a series of ‘maybes,’ ‘perhapses’ and ‘what ifs’.” The class action from shareholders who owned Boeing stock between January 7, 2021 and January 8, 2024 was originally certified in March 2025 by US district judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia. The appeals court returned the case to her.
The shareholders accused Boeing of inflating its stock price with false and misleading assurances in the period between the two B737 MAX accidents of 2018 and 2019 and the 2024 Alaska Airlines incident. Boeing faces a recently certified class action, from separate shareholders, stemming from the MAX crashes.
