WASHINGTON (3/19/13)--The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to hear an appeal by Goldman Sachs of a lower court's decision involving mortgage backed securities (MBS) in a case similar to lawsuits filed by the National Credit Union Administration against securities dealers, including Goldman Sachs.
 
Monday's case does not involve NCUA, but  has similar arguments that were argued in the lower courts before the nation's highest judicial body denied the case without comment. 
 
Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, asked the Supreme Court to overturn  a decision by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in  a class-action lawsuit filed by NECA-IBEW Health & Welfare Fund. NECU's suit alleged Goldman Sachs provided false and misleading information about the securities it underwrote and issued before the financial crisis hit (The Wall Street Journal and American Banker March 18).
 
NECA-IBEW said it bought securities in 2007 and 2008 from two of 17 trusts that Sachs offered. It alleged that Sachs' materials for the offerings included misleading information about the practices of mortgage lenders and the appraisals of properties backing the securities.  NECA-IBEW also maintained that Goldman misled investors about the underwriting and appraisal standards of the banks originating the loans backing the MBS offerings.
 
A lower trial court dismissed claims involving securities from 15 trusts NECA-IBEW did not do business with. However, last year the New York-based Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled NECA could bring a class action related to the other offerings.  In a separate case, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that investors can't sue an issuer over MBS that they did not purchase.
 
NCUA, as a conservator of corporate credit unions that bought similar MBS offerings before they collapsed, has filed several lawsuits seeking compensation for losses to the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund when the corporates closed.