Two groups of H&R Block shareholders last week filed separate derivative suits against the company's board of directors in Kansas City, Missouri's U.S. District Court, reports the Associated Press.

It seems the plaintiffs, identified as investment group Momentum Partners of New York and the pension fund of Iron Workers Local 16, are riled over a series of regulatory charges and investigations directed at the company since 2001. The suits say the board failed to halt, among other things, the sale of Enron Corp. securities and mutual fund market timing, and the "Express IRA" products that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently blasted.

Block's management is saying it will fight the charges. Typically, derivative suits seek or result in corporate governance and management changes rather than monetary damages, but large settlements -- returned to the company, rather than to individual investors -- are not unheard of.  

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