Allstate Shareholder Suit Over Auto Insurance Loss Clears Hurdle

Allstate Corp. shareholders have enough support for some class securities fraud claims stemming from statements about the company’s auto insurance business to go to a jury, a federal court in Illinois ruled.

Allstate executives’ motives in December 2014 for allegedly not disclosing a spike in auto claims, and their motives in later statements allegedly blaming the higher claims rate on macroeconomics and weather rather than lax underwriting, can’t be determined on summary judgment, Judge Robert W. Gettleman said Tuesday.

But earlier statements Allstate allegedly made in October 2014 didn’t refer to a higher claims rate in the upcoming quarter that ...