Irish brokers Bloxham to defend lawsuit filed by nuns

IRISH brokerage firm Bloxham must defend a lawsuit filed by nuns, a veterinary fund and 85 other investors claiming they lost money when Morgan Stanley failed to sell notes soon enough after they were downgraded.

Judge Elizabeth Gloster in London yesterday granted a request by Morgan Stanley’s lawyer, Laurence Rabinowitz, to add Bloxham as a defendant to the lawsuit. She separately declined the plaintiffs’ request to order the bank to hand over more evidence, saying it was “not right to put the onus on the defendants at this stage”.

The Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, the Holy Faith Sisters, the Irish Veterinary Benevolent Fund and other individual investors sued Morgan Stanley and Saturns Investments Europe Plc, a special-purpose vehicle set up by the New York-based bank, in August.