In BlackRock Financial Management Inc. v. Segregated Account of AMBAC Assurance Corp., the Second Circuit held that the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (‘‘CAFA’’) did not permit removal to federal court of a securities-related ‘‘mass action’’ filed in state court. Defendants (and occasionally plaintiffs) in securities cases sometimes rely on CAFA to remove class actions and mass actions to federal court. At first glance, BlackRock appeared to take a broad view of CAFA’s so called ‘‘securities exception’’ to removability and to limit parties’ ability successfully to remove securities class actions and mass actions under CAFA.
Reproduced with permission from Securities Regulation & Law Report, 44 SRLR 1116, 06/04/2012. Copyright 2012 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033) http://www.bna.com