Voxel Stock Nose-Dives After Judgment Ruling

Medical device maker Voxel’s stock price plummeted more than 60% on Monday, after an arbitration panel ruled against the Laguna Hills company and awarded a $1.9-million judgment to a competitor.

Voxel, which develops a high-tech diagnostic system that takes 3-D X-rays, watched as its stock dropped $3, closing at a 52-week low of $1.94 a share in heavy trading. A total of 1.8 million shares traded on the Nasdaq Small Cap market Monday, compared with a daily average of nearly 60,000 shares over the last three months.

For nearly 16 months, Voxel and competitor General Scanning Inc. have been entangled in a legal dispute over a 1994 development contract.

General Scanning was seeking payment for some engineering work it had done for Voxel, which had been trying to develop an imaging system to turn two-dimensional images into 3-D renderings. Voxel filed a counterclaim that asked for payment of lost profits.

On Sunday, Voxel announced that a three-member panel of the American Arbitration Assn. had voted in favor of General Scanning, and had awarded the Watertown, Mass., company $1.9 million. Last year, Voxel lost nearly $6 million. There were no sales.

Neither company could be reached for comment.