Wells Fargo Downplays Chevron Death in ERISA Mortgage Appeal

Wells Fargo Bank NA and Ocwen Financial Corp. dismissed the effect of the US Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Chevron deference on an appeal seeking to hold them liable as ERISA fiduciaries for mortgage-backed securities held by pension funds.

No party invoked Chevron—the decades-old decision instructing courts to defer to agencies’ interpretations of unclear laws—in any of the briefs because the case doesn’t involve an “implicit delegation” to the Labor Department, the companies said in a letter filed Tuesday with the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The appeal “has nothing to do” with the meaning of ...