A legal suit against Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Limited has been dismissed.

The US District Court in Alabama formally dismissed the suit against LOM on October 20. The court had previously set aside a$6.4 million default judgment that had been entered against LOM and an offshore brokerage arm of the Royal Bank of Canada because summonses were served on clients rather than authorised representatives of LOM and RBC and the firms were wrongly held out as being the ?alter egos? of the clients.

The suit is not the only legal probe involving the Bermuda company in recent days. Currently, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the British Columbia Securities Commission and the Bermuda Monetary Authority are all investigating LOM in respect to alleged securities violations. The company was also accused of fraud involving penny stocks in a civil lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court in California in September.

A spokesman for LOM said last month that the company considers the California suit ?to be entirely without merit and frivolous. The suit appears to pertain to alleged debts between the plaintiff and several of the defendants. LOM is not a proper party to the suit. As the plaintiff?s alleged debtor is no longer in business, we believe that LOM has been included only in the hope of securing a monetary settlement.?

LOM says that if and when it is served by the plaintiff, it will take the necessary steps to ?have itself dismissed as a defendant?.