Philadelphia's lawsuit against Wells Fargo over allegations the company's allegedly discriminatory lending practices damaged the city is too much of a stretch to proceed, the company has argued as part of its effort to dismiss a type of action that was only recently sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In mid-May, Philadelphia city government lawyers sued the national lending company, alleging it violated the Fair Housing Act by targeting minority borrowers with high-risk and high-interest loans. The suit was the first that a city lodged against a financial institution since the Supreme Court's May 1 decision in Bank of America v. City of Miami and Wells Fargo v. City of Miami, which established that municipalities have standing to sue banks over allegedly discriminatory lending practices.

That ruling, however, wasn't a total win for municipalities looking to sue, and, in its motion to dismiss Philadelphia's suit, Wells Fargo cited the heightened burden the high court established for municipalities in suing under the Fair Housing Act.