The Federal Court has denied Standard & Poor's leave to appeal its decision of early May, in which it rejected S&P's application to have claims against it in relation to Lehman Australia set aside.S&P will have to defend the claim brought by 91 councils, charities and church groups relating to losses on credit derivatives sold by a Lehman subsidiary before the financial crisis. This is a separate case to one involving 12 Lehman investors that was decided late in 2012.S&P sought to have the claim against it set aside on the basis that, as  US-based company, it should not be required to submit to Australian courts.In a ruling handed down yesterday, the court said S&P had already submitted to the jurisdiction of the Australian courts when it made previous applications.S&P also argued that the claim was an abuse of process because it was an attempt to "relitigate" a claim that should have been litigated in an earlier case. This argument was also rejected.The claim against S&P is that the claimants suffered losses on investments given AAA ratings by S&P, when there was no reasonable basis for those ratings.The claim is that "ratings assigned by S&P were not accurate or appropriate because of alleged deficiencies in S&P's ratings methodologies and S&P's lack of independence."A settlement reached with the liquidators of Lehman (Australia) last November will see 80 claimants recover about half of the A$180 million total losses suffered on the investments.The claim against S&P seeks to recover the balance of the losses.