Court Dismisses Occupancy Status Claims Against Countrywide

On August 17, Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer of the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted in part and denied in part the motion of Countrywide and Bank of America to dismiss an action brought by MassMutual in connection with its alleged purchase of RMBS.  Judge Pfaelzer held that Countrywide could not be liable for accurately repeating borrower-provided occupancy information in its offering documents where the offering documents specifically attributed the statements about owner occupancy to the borrowers.  Judge Pfaelzer further held that MassMutual failed to sufficiently plead Bank of America’s liability as a successor to Countrywide, thus warranting dismissing Bank of America from the suit.  The court held, however, that MassMutual had sufficiently pled claims under the Massachusetts Uniform Securities Act for alleged misrepresentations as to loan-to-value ratios and originator compliance with underwriting guidelines.  Decision.