Boeing wins dismissal of investor suit over 787

Boeing Co., the world's second-biggest aircraft maker, won dismissal of a shareholder suit that alleged the company and its executives made misleading statements about the flight readiness of the 787 passenger jet.

U.S. District Judge Suzanne Conlon in Chicago threw out the 2009 case today in a 12-page order, finding the Livonia, Michigan, employees pension plan hadn't presented enough evidence to go forward.

"City of Livonia must specify each statement alleged to have been misleading and the reasons why the statement is misleading," Conlon wrote, concluding the complaint failed to clear that threshold.

Boeing's rollout of the new 787 passenger jet, also known as the Dreamliner, is more two years behind schedule as the Chicago-based company has grappled with parts production problems and structural flaws revealed through testing.

The pension plan sued in November, saying statements by Boeing, Chief Executive Officer W. James McNerney and Scott Carson -- who has led its commercial airplane division -- misled investors about the progress of the plane's development.

Claims concerning the announced results of jet wing stress tests were "murky," the judge said of revised claims filed in February. She also rejected allegations the executives delayed the announcement of those tests until after a 2009 air show.

'Sophisticated Purchasers'"A rational person would not presume that sophisticated purchasers of a costly aircraft would cancel orders at the air show, but not the next week after the announcement," Conlon said.Boeing's head of finance communications, Chaz Bickers, said in a statement that the company is pleased with the court "recognizing the frivolousness of the lawsuit."San Diego attorney Thomas Egler of Robbins Geller Rudman Dowd LLP, the lead lawyer for the Livonia employees' pension plan, declined to comment.The case is City of Livonia Employees' Retirement System v. Boeing Co., 009cv7143, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).