Last week we told you about a New York state supreme court justice’s dismissal of a class action claiming Bank of America was obliged to buy back hundreds of thousands of Countrywide-issued mortgages to the tune of billions of dollars. The problem with the suit, according to the judge who tossed it, was that the named plaintiff hadn’t adhered to pooling and servicing agreements that required (among other things) support from 25 percent of the certificate holders to initiate litigation.
But what if a group of bondholders stuck with $47 billion in Countrywide-issued residential mortgage-backed securities that have drastically eroded in value jumped through all the necessary administrative hoops en route to litigation? “The exposure is gigantic,” said Kathy Patrick of Gibbs & Bruns. “North of $20 billion.”
