Bid To Consolidate WaMu Mortgage Suits Rejected

Bid To Consolidate WaMu Mortgage Suits Rejected - 5/12/2009

Home

Index of Filings

News and Press Releases

Filings

Decisions

Settlements

Litigation Activity Indices

Top Ten List

Annual/Quarterly Updates

Clearinghouse Research

Articles & Papers

Search

Related Sites

About Us

Local Rules

Sponsors

Register

_______________
Copyright © 2001
Stanford Law School

2009 News and Press Releases

SEARCH

News	News 2009
HEADLINES \| SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS \| COURT FILINGS LINKS TO OTHER NEWS \| NEWS ARCHIVE	HEADLINES ARCHIVED SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS ARCHIVED

DISMISSAL NEWS:

Bid To Consolidate WaMu Mortgage Suits Rejected
Evan Weinberger

Securities Law 360. May 12, 2009
_________________________________________________________________________

EXCERPT: A federal judge has declined to consolidate putative class actions filed by the Boilermakers National Annuity Trust Fund and the New Orleans Employees' Retirement System alleging Washington Mutual Bank and an appraiser purposefully inflated the appraisal value of properties that secured the bank's mortgages. Judge Marsha J. Pechman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on Saturday ruled that consolidation was no longer an option because of a stay placed on the New Orleans retirement system case in its separate proceedings. Individual corporate defendants in the Boilermakers' case had asked the judge to consolidate the two putative class actions in February. The Boilermakers and New Orleans retirement system cases both hit the Western District of Washington in January, after being transferred in from a Washington state court. The two lawsuits originally listed Washington Mutual as the lead defendant, but the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over as the lead defendant in February, following WaMu's Chapter 11 filing and eventual sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The FDIC won dismissal of the Boilermakers' case in late April on the grounds that the plaintiffs had not exhausted administrative remedies with the bank insurer. Because the judge overseeing the New Orleans lawsuit granted a stay in that case pending an FDIC administrative investigation, it was impossible to consolidate the cases, Judge Pechman said. The Boilermaker defendants were given the opportunity to ask for a stay in their case dependent on the separate proceedings, with Judge Pechman giving them 10 days to do so. Attorneys for the individual corporate defendants could not be reached for comment. According to the Boilermakers complaint, Washington Mutual systematically inflated appraised values of properties, which enabled it to close more loans and earn more fees by issuing mortgages to unqualified borrowers.

Back to News page | Back to Archived News 2009 page | Back to Top

�