US Court Takes Major Decision in Ripple Lawsuit After Settlement Talks

US district court judge issued orders on multiple motions in the In re Ripple Labs Inc Litigation. The orders present further clarity in the lawsuit as plaintiffs alleged securities law violations by payment firm Ripple Labs. Meanwhile, the parties in the XRP lawsuit had talks on settlement scheduled by the court.

Judge Issues Orders in Ripple Case

In the latest court filing, Judge Hamilton granted orders on four motions under the Daubert rule pending before the court. It came as a win for plaintiffs as the court ruled mostly in favor of requests by plaintiffs.

Defendants RippleLabs and XRP II’s motion to exclude the testimony of plaintiff’s expert Jeremy Clark is denied in the XRP lawsuit. The court also denied defendants’ motion to exclude the testimony of plaintiff’s expert Saifedean Ammous.

Judge Hamilton granted plaintiff’s motion to exclude the testimony of defendants’ expert Alan Schwartz. Also, he granted Ripple’s motion to exclude the testimony of plaintiff’s expert Joel Seligman.

Ripple argued that Jeremy Clark is not an expert on XRP specifically, but the court has found Clark’s report reliable for conclusions, including XRP ledger depends on Ripple and XRP distribution favors the company.

“Ripple’s control or lack of control over the XRP ecosystem is a factual issue relevant to the Howey test, and Clark’s testimony speaks to that issue.”

The judge asserts defendants’ expert Allen Ferrell and plaintiff’s expert Ammous offer opposing opinions on whether Ripple’s actions affect the price of XRP.  The jury will take the decision on this argument at the upcoming trial.

It’s important to note that Schwartz’s testimony on investment contracts was admitted in the SDNY case SEC v. Ripple Labs. The testimony by Schwartz was one of the testimonies considered by Judge Analisa Torres to understand the commercial purposes of the industry.

The decision came after the parties had a settlement conference at the end of September. Pretrial conference is set for December 19 and Jury Selection and Jury Trial are scheduled for January 21.

Ripple Vs SEC Lawsuit Set for Appeal Hearings

Ripple vs SEC lawsuit set to proceed in the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeal as both parties filed Form C. Surprisingly, the agency has reinstated securities law violation charges against Ripple executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.

Lawyers and experts claimed that the appeal has extended the XRP lawsuit for years. The crypto industry slammed the SEC for overreach and hypocrisy.

XRP price broke below $0.50 in the last 24 hours amid Israel-Iran geopolitical concerns and money laundering investigation into Tether by the US DOJ. The price is currently trading at $0.513, down 6% in a week. The 24-hour low and high are $0.510 and $0.517, respectively.