Supreme Court won't stop class action against Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs' bid to stop a class-action lawsuit led by the NECA-IBEW Health & Welfare Fund was rebuffed Tuesday by the Supreme Court, which declined to review the case.

In 2012, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York allowed the NECA-IBEW fund to bring a class-action case for allegedly misleading documents in mortgage-backed securities issued by Goldman Sachs.

The Decatur, Ill.-based pension fund, which had $218 million at year-end 2010, purchased securities from two of seven offerings, but was given legal standing in all seven by the New York court, which ruled that “a sufficiently similar set of concerns” was involved. The decision's conflict with other circuits “deepens existing disagreement” and could lead to “multibillion-dollar consequences in securities litigation alone,” attorney Theodore Olson of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Washington, argued in Goldman Sachs' petition to the Supreme Court.

Calls to the fund, Goldman Sachs and the attorneys for each were not returned at press time.

— Contact Hazel Bradford at hbradford@pionline.com | @Bradford_PI