Pension Funds Lead “Enormous” New Class Action Lawsuit Against JP Morgan

It’s been less than a year since JP Morgan agreed to a $13 billion settlement to compensate homeowners and pension funds for losses stemming from failed investments.

Now, the bank has been told it will face another class action lawsuit centering on the same issue: the toxic mortgage-backed securities it sold investors in the years leading up to the financial crisis.

At the forefront of the lawsuit are two pension funds: the Laborers Pension Trust Fund for Northern California and Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California, who are both lead plaintiffs.

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A federal judge on Tuesday said JPMorgan Chase & Co. must face a class action lawsuit by investors who claimed the largest U.S. bank misled them about the safety of $10 billion of mortgage-backed securities it sold before the financial crisis.

U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan certified a class action as to JPMorgan’s liability but not as to damages, saying it was unclear how investors could value the certificates they bought, given how the market was “not particularly liquid.” He said the plaintiffs could try again to certify a class on damages.

Oetken ruled 10 months after JPMorgan reached a $13 billion settlement to resolve U.S. and state probes into the New York-based bank’s sale of mortgage securities.

The class consists of investors before March 23, 2009 in certificates issued from nine of 11 trusts created by JPMorgan for the April 2007 offering. The other two trusts attracted only a handful of investors, and are the subject of other lawsuits.

Oetken named the Laborers Pension Trust Fund for Northern California and Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California as lead plaintiffs, and their law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd as lead counsel.

Another bank, Morgan Stanley, said this summer it expects to be sued by CalPERS. The pension fund lost almost $200 million during the financial crisis on real estate investments it bought from the bank.

Photo by Sarath Kuchi via Flickr CC License