Maurice Greenberg's litigation crusade against the U.S. government lives on.

In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler once again refused to dismiss a suit by the former chairman of American International Group Inc., who alleges that the government's takeover of AIG during the financial crisis was an illegal taking. While Wheeler did dismiss Greenberg's derivative claims brought on behalf of AIG, he allowed direct shareholder claims to proceed on behalf of a class that he certified in March. (We previously wrote about this case here and here.)

A similar case that Greenberg brought against the New York Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan was dismissed last November.

Through his company Starr International Company Inc., Greenberg sued the U.S. in 2011 in Federal Claims Court. Last year, Wheeler refused to dismiss the direct claims and deferred ruling on the derivative claims. AIG kicked off a media frenzy in January when it contemplated joining Greenberg's lawsuit, but decided not to. In the wake of this board decision, the court turned to the derivative claims and the government's renewed motion to dismiss the direct claims.