MBIA Inc. failed to win a pretrial ruling against Bank of America Corp.’s Countrywide Financial unit in a lawsuit claiming the mortgage lender breached its obligations to repurchase loans, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. New York State Supreme Court Justice Eileen Bransten denied MBIA’s request for a ruling that Countrywide is obligated to buy back loans that the insurer claims were riskier than represented by the lender. The Armonk, New York-based company guarantees payments to investors that bought securities backed by pools of Countrywide’s loans. Judge Bransten said that there are “sufficient facts in dispute” about the loans to preclude a ruling in MBIA’s favor at this point in the litigation, which began in 2008.
