Allstate Insurance v. Countrywide Financial Corp.

842 F. Supp. 2d 1216, 2012 WL 335730, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15199
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedFebruary 2, 2012
DocketCase No. 2:11-CV-05236-MRP (MANx)
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 842 F. Supp. 2d 1216 (Allstate Insurance v. Countrywide Financial Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allstate Insurance v. Countrywide Financial Corp., 842 F. Supp. 2d 1216, 2012 WL 335730, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15199 (C.D. Cal. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER RE BANK OF AMERICA DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS THE AMENDED COMPLAINT

MARIANA R. PFAELZER, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

This securities action concerns residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) purchased by Allstate Insurance Company, Allstate Life Insurance Company, Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York, and American Heritage Life Insurance Company (collectively “Allstate” or “Plaintiffs”) in multiple offerings structured and sold by several of the defendants. Generally, Allstate alleges that Countrywide Financial Corporation (“CFC” or “Countrywide”), three of its subsidiaries, four Countrywide-sponsored Special Purpose Vehicles, and a number of those entities’ former officers and directors are liable to Allstate for misrepresentations regarding the quality of Countrywide-issued residential mortgage backed securities (“RMBS”) that Allstate purchased between 2005 and 2007. This motion concerns the sole issue of whether three of the defendants, Bank of America Corporation, NB Holdings Corporation, and BAC Home Loans Servicing, [1221]*1221LP (collectively the “Bank of America Defendants”), should remain in the case.1

The Court assumes familiarity with Countrywide’s business, the particular Countrywide-issued RMBS at issue in this case, the representations contained in the offering documents for those RMBS, Allstate’s purchases of those RMBS, and the procedural history of this case. A full background is available in the Court’s pri- or ruling in this case, in which the Court granted in part and denied in part Defendants’ motions to dismiss the Complaint. Allstate Ins. Co. v. Countrywide Fin. Corp., 824 F.Supp.2d 1164, No. 2:11-CV-05236-MRP (MANx), 2011 WL 5067128 (C.D.Cal. Oct. 21, 2011) (‘Allstate I ”).

The present motion does not address primary liability, but rather whether Bank of America, which acquired CFC in July 2008 through a reverse triangular merger, can be held liable to Allstate. The Court dismissed Bank of America Corp. and NB Holdings Corp. in Allstate I, but granted leave to amend. Plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint (the “AC”), which added BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP as a defendant, added a theory of relief, and added several pages of factual and narrative specificity. The Bank of America Defendants moved to dismiss Counts Nine, Ten, and Eleven of the AC as insufficient. The Court agrees. For the reasons discussed herein, the Court DISMISSES Cause of Action Nine (Successor and Vicarious Liability), Cause of Action Ten (Intentional Fraudulent Conveyance), and Cause of Action Eleven (Constructive Fraudulent Conveyance). Dismissal is WITH PREJUDICE.

II. HISTORY OF THE TRANSACTIONS

On January 11, 2008, Bank of America announced that it would acquire CFC in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $4.1 billion. AC ¶ 345. The merger closed on July 1, 2008. Id. To effectuate the merger, Bank of America formed a subsidiary called Red Oak Merger Corp. Id. CFC merged into Red Oak Merger Corp., which immediately renamed itself Countrywide Financial Corporation. Id. The end result of the merger was that, after July 1, 2008, CFC was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of America. Id. This process is known as a reverse triangular merger.

The same week as the Red Oak Merger, Countrywide and various Bank of America entities engaged in the first of two sets of asset sales. This set of transactions, referred to as the “LD12 Transactions” included:

• Countrywide Home Loans sold a pool of residential mortgage loans to NB Holdings Corp. for $6.9 billion on July 1,2008. AC ¶ 360.
• Countrywide Home Loans novated a portfolio of derivative instruments to BAÑA, a Bank of America Corp. subsidiary, for $1.8 billion on July 1, 2008. AC ¶ 361.
• Countrywide Home Loans sold its interests in Countrywide GP, LLC and Countrywide LP, LLC, which collec[1222]*1222tively owned a 100 percent equity interest in Countrywide Home Loans Servicing LP, in exchange for a $19.7 billion promissory note on July 2, 2008. AC ¶ 362.
• Countrywide Securities sold a pool of asset-backed securities and mortgage-backed securities to Blue Ridge Investments, LLC, a subsidiary of Bank of America Corp. for $147 million on July 2, 2008. AC ¶ 363.
• Countrywide Home Loans sold a pool of residential mortgage loans to NB Holdings Corp. for $2.5 billion on July 3,2008. AC ¶ 364.
• Countrywide Commercial Real Estate Finance, a subsidiary of CFC, sold a pool of commercial mortgage loans to NB Holdings Corp. for $238 million on July 2, 2008. AC ¶ 365.

The LD1 transactions resulted in Countrywide receiving slightly more than $30 billion in cash and promissory notes. AC ¶¶ 360-365.

In October 2008, Countrywide sought permission from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) to sell the remainder of Countrywide Home Loans’ assets to various Bank of America entities. AC ¶ 368. The OCC approved the sale on November 6, 2008, id., and Countrywide engaged in a second set of asset sales known as the LD100 transactions on November 7, 2008. AC ¶ 370. Those transactions included:

• Countrywide Home Loans sold “substantially all” the remaining assets used in Countrywide’s mortgage business to Bank of America for a $1.76 billion promissory note. AC ¶ 371.
• CFC sold its equity interest in Countrywide Bank, FSB to Bank of America for a $3.6 billion promissory note and the assumption of $16.6 billion in public debt. AC ¶ 372.

Allstate alleges that the three transactions described above (the Red Oak Merger, LD1, and LD100) make the Bank of America Defendants liable under successor and vicarious liability theories. AC ¶ 459. Allstate further alleges that the LD1 and LD100 transactions were either actual or constructive fraudulent conveyances. AC ¶¶ 461-475.

III. CHOICE OF LAW

Before embarking on a substantive analysis, the Court must determine which law to apply to each of Allstate’s claims. The Court has already held that Delaware law applies to Allstate’s successor liability claims. Allstate I, 824 F.Supp.2d at 1171-75, 2011 WL 5067128, at *4-6. The Court now holds that Illinois law applies to Allstate’s fraudulent conveyance claims.

The case was transferred from the Southern District of New York pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). ECF No. 116. The Court therefore applies the substantive law, including choice-of-law rules, of New York to Allstate’s state law claims. Van Dusen v. Barrack, 376 U.S. 612, 639, 84 S.Ct. 805, 11 L.Ed.2d 945 (1964) (“A change of venue under § 1404(a) generally should be, with respect to state law, but a change of courtrooms.”); Newton v. Thomason, 22 F.3d 1455, 1459 (9th Cir.1994) (“Because the case was transferred under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) ... we apply the choice-of-law rules of [the transferor forum]”).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
842 F. Supp. 2d 1216, 2012 WL 335730, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15199, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allstate-insurance-v-countrywide-financial-corp-cacd-2012.