Federal securities law does not preclude Merck and Schering-Plough investors from bringing individual suits against the drugmakers under state law after opting out of a securities class action settlement, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Friday.

By a 2-1 margin, the appeals court reversed the order of a federal trial judge who dismissed state-law fraud claims against the drugmakers under the preclusion provision of the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act. But SLUSA does not disturb the right to opt out of a class action, and U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson of the District of New Jersey, who dismissed the 16 plaintiffs’ opt-out suits, was wrong to deride their lawsuits as “gamesmanship,” the Third Circuit ruled.