Nomura Home Equity Loan, Inc., Series 2006-FM2 v. Nomura Credit & Capital, Inc.

133 A.D.3d 96, 19 N.Y.S.3d 1
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedOctober 13, 2015
Docket650337/13 652614/12 651124/13 653783/12
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 133 A.D.3d 96 (Nomura Home Equity Loan, Inc., Series 2006-FM2 v. Nomura Credit & Capital, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nomura Home Equity Loan, Inc., Series 2006-FM2 v. Nomura Credit & Capital, Inc., 133 A.D.3d 96, 19 N.Y.S.3d 1 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Sweeny, J.

These appeals stem from the securitization of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) by Nomura Credit & *99 Capital, Inc., the defendant in each case. The allegations and arguments advanced in the parties’ briefs are, with certain exceptions, materially similar throughout these four cases. Therefore, the factual and legal issues will be addressed in a unified manner, with pertinent differences noted where necessary.

As a starting point, it is necessary to understand how the debt instruments involved in these cases were created. Generally, the securitization process involves packaging numerous mortgage loans into a trust, which in turn issues debt securities, which it then sells to investors. The payments made by the borrowers of the underlying mortgages are “passed through” to the investors holding the securities, who in turn receive distributions to the extent and in the priority provided for in the securitization documents. (See MBIA Ins. Corp. v Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 87 AD3d 287, 290 [1st Dept 2011].)

More specifically, a “sponsor,” which is an affiliate of a bank (such as defendant herein), acquires mortgage loans from the institutions that actually made the loans to individual borrowers. The sponsor selects the loans it wishes to purchase and has unrestricted access to the underlying documentation associated with each loan. It then sells the loans via a mortgage loan purchase agreement (MLPA) to a special-purpose entity affiliated with the sponsor known as the “depositor.” The depositor immediately transfers or “deposits” the mortgage loans into a trust, which then issues securities to the depositor, which in turn sells them to investors through an underwriter. The proceeds of the sale of these securities ultimately finance the purchase of the mortgage loans. A trustee then holds the loans and administers the trust for the benefit of the investors. The depositor, trustee and sponsor then enter into a pooling and servicing agreement (PSA) with a “servicer,” which is engaged to collect payments on the underlying loans in a manner consistent with the securitization documents. (See Ace Sec. Corp. Home Equity Loan Trust, Series 2007-HE3 ex rel. HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v DB Structured Prods., Inc., 5 F Supp 3d 543, 547-548 [SD NY 2014].) This process was followed in each of these four cases.

Certain provisions of the MLPAs form the core of the disputes between these parties. In section 7 of each MLPA, defendant represented and warranted as follows:

“The written statements, reports and other documents prepared and furnished or to be prepared *100 and furnished by [defendant] pursuant to this Agreement or in connection with the transactions contemplated hereby taken in the aggregate do not contain any untrue statement of material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements contained therein not misleading.”

The parties refer to this as the “No Untrue Statement Provision.” The “other documents” referenced in this provision included prospectuses, mortgage loan files and loan tapes. 1

In section 8 of each MLPA, defendant made specific representations and warranties about each loan, including, as pertinent to these appeals, the following:

(i) /(l) 2 “Information provided to the Rating Agencies ... is true and correct according to the Rating Agency requirements”;
(ii) /(2) “No fraud has taken place on the part of the Mortgagor or any other party involved in the origination or servicing of the Mortgage Loan”;
(xxix)/(29) “The Mortgage File contains an appraisal of the related Mortgaged Property which was made by a qualified appraiser, duly appointed by the related originator and was made in accordance with the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 and the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice”;
(xli)/(42) “Each Mortgage Loan is and will be a mortgage loan arising out of the originator’s practice in accordance with the originator’s underwriting guidelines.” 3

The parties reference this as the “Mortgage Representations.”

Section 9 (a) of each MLPA contains the following remedy for missing documents and breaches of the mortgage representations:

*101 “Upon discovery by the Seller ... or any assignee, transferee or designee of the Purchaser of any materially defective document in, or that any material document was not transferred by the Seller, . . . or of a breach of any of the representations and warranties contained in Section 8 that materially and adversely affects the value of any Mortgage Loan . . . the party discovering such breach shall give prompt written notice to the Seller. . . . [T]he Seller promptly shall deliver such missing document or cure such defect or breach in all material respects or, in the event the Seller cannot deliver such missing document or cannot cure such defect or breach, the Seller shall . . . repurchase the affected Mortgage Loan at the Purchase Price.”

The term “Purchase Price” is defined as “an amount equal to the sum of (i) 100% of the outstanding principal balance of the Mortgage Loan as of the date of such purchase plus, (ii) 30 days’ accrued interest thereon.”

Section 9 (c) of each MLPA contains the following limitation on remedies: “[T]he obligations of the Seller set forth in this Section 9 to cure or repurchase a defective Mortgage Loan . . . constitute the sole remedies of the Purchaser against the Seller respecting a missing document or a breach of the representations and warranties contained in Section 8.” This is the “sole remedy” provision.

Finally, section 13 of each MLPA provides that “[a]ll rights and remedies of the Purchaser under this Agreement are distinct from, and cumulative with, any other rights or remedies under this Agreement or afforded by law or equity and all such rights and remedies may be exercised concurrently, independently or successively.”

In section 2.03 of each of the PSAs, defendant made certain representations and warranties, including a statement that “[t]he representations and warranties set forth in Section 8 of the [MLPA] are true and correct as of the Closing Date.” Section 2.03 further provided the following remedy for a breach:

“Upon discovery by any of the parties hereto of a breach of a representation or warranty set forth in . . . Section 8 of the [MLPA] that materially and adversely affects the interests of the Certificate-holders in any Mortgage Loan, the party discovering such breach shall give prompt written notice thereof to the other parties. The Sponsor [defend *102 ant] hereby covenants with respect to the representations and warranties set forth in . . .

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
133 A.D.3d 96, 19 N.Y.S.3d 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nomura-home-equity-loan-inc-series-2006-fm2-v-nomura-credit-capital-nyappdiv-2015.