TreeHouse Leaders Defeat Investor Suit Over ConAgra Unit Buy

TreeHouse Foods Inc. investors can’t proceed with a suit against the food maker’s directors and executives on the company’s behalf for losses blamed on a rocky integration of ConAgra Foods Inc.'s private brands subsidiary.

Shareholders Brian Lavin and Donald Bartelt didn’t satisfy derivative suit requirements under Delaware law because they didn’t ask the board to sue first, and failed to show that doing so would be futile, Judge Jeremy C. Daniel said Wednesday for the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. TreeHouse, which produces private label packaged food for grocery stores and other retailers, is based in ...