Walnut Place Drops Lawsuit Against BofA’s Countrywide

An investor group dropped a lawsuit against Bank of America Corp.’s Countrywide Home Loans unit seeking the repurchase of loans underlying mortgage securities.

The investors, known as Walnut Place, filed two lawsuits last year against Countrywide in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Justice Barbara Kapnick dismissed the first suit in March and an appeals court upheld the decision last month.

Walnut Place and Countrywide agreed to voluntarily end the second suit with prejudice, meaning it can’t be refiled, according to a court document filed on July 27.

Walnut Place earlier this month withdrew from litigation over Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America’s proposed $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement with investors. Walnut Place is a pseudonym used by Boston-based hedge fund Baupost Group LLC, Theodore Mirvis, a Bank of America attorney, said at a court hearing last year, according to a transcript.

Owen Cyrulnik, a lawyer representing Walnut Place; Mark Holland, an attorney representing Countrywide; and Elaine Mann, a spokeswoman for Baupost, didn’t immediately return telephone messages seeking comment. Lawrence Grayson, a spokesman for Bank of America, declined to comment.

The case is Walnut Place LLC v. Countrywide Home Loans Inc, 652146-2011, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net