Syncora Wins Partial Judgment Against JPMorgan’s EMC in Suit
Syncora Guarantee Inc. won part of its case against JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMC Mortgage Corp. over the securitization of 9,871 home equity line of credit loans.
U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty in New York ruled March 25 that Syncora, a New York-based insurer, notified EMC of 1,300 mortgages with defects and asked EMC to cure them. EMC agreed to cure only 20 of the mortgages.
The transaction in dispute began with the purchase of the home equity lines of credit or HELOCs, which in turn served as collateral for the issuance of $666 million in publicly offered securities, Syncora said in court papers.
Syncora claimed in the 2009 suit that EMC sold the loan pool to the entity that issued the notes and contracted with Syncora to provide financial-guaranty insurance protecting investors.
The insurer alleged that after it hired consultants to investigate poor loan performance, “it learned that more than 85 percent of a randomly selected pool of loans contained defects that breached the loan-level warranties,” Crotty wrote.
Syncora notified EMC of these claimed breaches, Crotty wrote. EMC agreed to repurchase certain loans and disputed others “because Syncora misinterpreted the representations relied upon or because the loans were not defective,” the judge wrote.
Passed Deadline
Crotty separately rejected a bid by Syncora to add JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s Bear Stearns & Co. to the lawsuit. The insurer said it had uncovered new evidence to support claims of fraud and interference. The request wasn’t filed in a timely fashion, the judge said.
“Syncora gave no indication of its intention to file an amended complaint, add a new party or assert additional claims until September 2010, approximately fourteen months after the amendment deadline had passed,” Crotty said. He added later, “Syncora has failed to demonstrate the good cause necessary to permit this late amendment.”
Michael Corbally, a spokesman for Syncora, didn’t immediately reply to a voice-mail message left at his office seeking comment. Jennifer Zuccarelli, a JPMorgan spokeswoman, didn’t respond to a message.
The case is Syncora Guarantee Inc. v. EMC Mortgage Corp., 1:09-cv-03106, U.S. District court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in New York at pathurtado@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
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