Judge Cesare Tacconi dismissed requests from the third-biggest US bank and the former Italian unit of the auditor Grant Thornton, now Italaudit, to be named as damaged parties in a civil leg of the Parmalat case in the high court.

Bank of America said: “It is a surprising decision that we do not agree with. We reserve the right to file as a damaged civil party again during the possible future trial.”

Deloitte & Touche, the accountancy firm that had worked with Parmalat, is also banned from seeking damages in the case.

Enrico Bondi, Parmalat’s adminstrator, is suing the company’s banking advisers and auditors, including Bank of America and Italaudit, for $10 billion, claiming that they contributed to Parmalat’s downfall. They have denied any wrongdoing and have said that they were among the victims of fraud allegedly perpetrated by the dairy group’s former management.

Parmalat, once one of Italy’s best-known companies, collapsed in December 2003 after revealing a hole of more than €4 billion in its accounts.

Public prosecutors in Milan later accused 29 former Parmalat executives, bankers and auditors and three financial institutions of hiding the company’s true finances.

The Milan court opened hearings last October into whether to order the accused, including Bank of America, to stand trial. The court has yet to rule on the prosecutors’ request for them to be tried.

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