U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan ruled Monday that she has jurisdiction over two high-profile investor lawsuits filed against banks that set the LIBOR interest rate. On first glance, the ruling is a win for the banks, since Buchwald is the judge that gutted LIBOR class action litigation back in March. But one of the plaintiffs lawyers, Daniel Brockett of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, says the banks are far from in the clear.
In a 28-page decision, Buchwald refused to remand to state court a fraud case Quinn Emanuel brought on behalf of Salix Capital against banks including Bank of America Corp., Credit Suisse AG, and Deutsche Bank AG. In the same decision, Buchwald also refused to let go of a similar case Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein filed for plaintiff Charles Schwab Corp. Siding with the banks, Buchwald ruled that a statute called the Edge Act gives federal courts jurisdiction over Salix and Schwab’s claims.
