In between the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s announcement of a new guaranty fee increase and the Senate’s confirmation of a new FHFA director, a Manhattan federal judge last week quietly issued a ruling that permits the agency to proceed with its residential mortgage-backed securites lawsuits. In the summer of 2011, the FHFA filed suit against 18 big banks in connection with flawed mortgage securities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased between 2005 and 2007. A number of defendants in the case, including a host of individuals, argued in an appeal filed in August that due to a 2005 change in Rule 430B of the Securities Act of 1933, they should not be held liable in the case.