At the crux of this case was the Teamsters' issue with Moody's "issuer payer" model, where Moody's is paid by the agencies its rating. The Teamsters' alleged Moody's sacrificed its independence and succumbed to conflicts of interest when assigning ratings to troubling residential mortgage-backed securities, according to court documents. In 2007, Moody's downgraded several of these residential securities it had once rated highly.

When called out by both legislators and the media on its ratings process of the residential securities after the financial crisis, Moody's stock price dropped, dragging down the pension value, the Teamsters claimed. Of note, the suit highlighted a loss of $17.92 per share following extended coverage of Alabama Senator Richard Shelby's August 2007 comments that ratings agencies should share in the blame of the country's mortgage crisis. Other ratings agencies have faced similar accusations, the most high profile being a federal civil suit brought against Standard & Poor's earlier this year.

Teamsters Local 282 bought Moody's stock in February 2007 and sold all of it in September of the same year.

To proceed with the case, the plaintiffs were required to provide evidence of a securities violation. The court determined the plaintiffs didn't.