Justice Kapnick Gives Qualified Approval to $8.5 billion Settlement of Mortgage-Backed Securities Claims

On January 31, 2014, former New York County Commercial Division Justice Barbara Kapnick (now sitting on the First Department) issued a long-awaited decision in Matter of Bank of New York Mellon, 2014 NY Slip Op. 30309(U), approving in most respects an $8.5 billion settlement between Bank of New York Mellon, as trustee of trusts holding mortgage-backed securities issued by Countrywide Financial Corp., and Bank of America, which acquired Countrywide in 2008.

Upon reaching the settlement, which resolved claims for breaches of representations and warranties concerning the underlying mortgages and violations of prudent loan servicing obligations, Bank of New York sought judicial approval of the settlement under Article 77 of the CPLR, which authorizes a special proceeding "to determine a matter relating to any express trust." A group of institutional investors intervened to support the settlement, and various other investors intervened in opposition and/or to obtain more information about the settlement. (Our firm represented a group of investors who intervened in the proceeding and participated in discovery.) Following extensive discovery and motion practice, Justice Kapnick, on her final day in the Commercial Division, largely approved the settlement as within the bounds of the trustee's "reasonable judgment." She did, however, find that the trustee abused its discretion on one point—settling without adequate investigation of potential repurchase claims for modified mortgage loans. This caveat has created significant uncertainty, since the original settlement was contingent on Bank of New York obtaining judicial approval of its actions. The proceeding is now assigned to Justice Scarpulla, who, Reuters reports, has stayed Justice Kapnick's decision from taking effect until February 19. Given the amounts at stake, further litigation in the trial court and on appeal can be expected.