Motions for class certification are typically a chance for plaintiff lawyers to make or break a case. So you’d think lawyers for Countrywide Financial at Goodwin Procter would have fought hard to beat back a bid by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll to certify a class of Countrywide investors in more than $2 billion in mortgage-backed securities. Instead, Countrywide stipulated to the proposed class in pending litigation in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, and on Monday Judge Mariana Pfaelzer granted certification and named Cohen Milstein lead class counsel.
Cohen Milstein called the ruling “a major step in holding Countrywide accountable for misrepresenting the mortgages it was securitizing,” and the case is among just a tiny handful in which MBS purchasers have achieved class status. But Countrywide and its lawyers may have a reason to feel confident about facing the class head on: Pfaelzer had already decimated the plaintiffs’ case, wiping out claims over nearly $350 billion in securities. The plaintiffs’ lawyers, meanwhile, are eager to litigate what’s left of the case so that they can finally appeal the rulings that limited their claims.
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