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U.S. Supreme Court Resurrects Investors’ MBS Case Against Dutch Bank

gavel-fourThe U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned a decision by an appeals court and granted a writ of certiorari to investors of ING Group, allowing them to continue with their class action suit against ING that accuses the Dutch bank of withholding information about the riskiness of its mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis, according to media reports.

ING's investors originally sued the bank in February 2009, accusing the bank of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage-backed securities in June 2007, just a few months before the financial crisis hit. The investors blamed ING for the huge losses they incurred when the housing market crashed in 2008.

In September 2010, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District New York dismissed most of the plaintiffs' claims in the case, ruling that the statute of limitations expired and that the plaintiffs waited too long to sue, the reports said.

The lower court's decision was later upheld in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in November 2013, claiming that a "reasonably diligent plaintiff" would not have waited so long to sue in the case, according to reports. The Second Circuit Court also ruled that the plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege that ING knowingly made false statements regarding the mortgage-backed securities when the disclosure was issued in September 2007.

The attorneys for the plaintiff, Marshall Freidus, sought a certiorari starting in June 2014 on the basis that the ING case was similar to another one pending in the Supreme Court in which investors sued Omnicare over material misstatements made in investment documents. The Second and Sixth Circuit Courts were divided on how to determine liability for statements made regarding investment documents which turned out later to false. The Supreme Court ruled in that case on March 24, overturning the Sixth Circuit's decision that held Omnicare executives were liable. But the high court also remanded the claim and ordered the lower court to evaluate opinions based on what a "reasonable" investor can expect.

Attorneys representing the plaintiff and defendant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case in the U.S. Supreme Court is Marshall Freidus et al. v. ING Groep NV et al., case number 13-1505.

About Author: Brian Honea

Brian Honea's writing and editing career spans nearly two decades across many forms of media. He served as sports editor for two suburban newspaper chains in the DFW area and has freelanced for such publications as the Yahoo! Contributor Network, Dallas Home Improvement magazine, and the Dallas Morning News. He has written four non-fiction sports books, the latest of which, The Life of Coach Chuck Curtis, was published by the TCU Press in December 2014. A lifelong Texan, Brian received his master's degree from Amberton University in Garland.
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