The Daily Docket: Lehman Fight Divides Customers, Creditors

Lehman Brothers Inc. Europe says the trustee winding down its U.S. counterpart could try to block European creditors from recovering $8.9 billion. But allowing such a claim has the potential to dilute recoveries for U.S. customers of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s brokerage. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review story here.

A subsidiary of hearing-aid maker Siemens Hearing Instruments Inc. won court approval to buy the assets of hearing-care provider HearUSA Inc. out of bankruptcy protection. Read the DBR Small Cap story here.

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Consumer bankruptcies declined 5% in July, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Saab Automobile owner Swedish Automobile NV Wednesday said it plans to issue new shares to raise cash to pay workers’ wages after it failed to honor last month’s paychecks, WSJ reports.

Jefferson County, Ala., and state officials will likely rush a new debt proposal to the county’s creditors in an attempt to reach a settlement before a Thursday meeting on a potential bankruptcy filing, the Birmingham News reports.

Developer SunCal Cos. is wrestling with the consequences of dozens of failed investments made before the real-estate bubble burst, but it’s making deals again, WSJ reports.

UBS AG and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. are asking a judge to toss lawsuits against them and others by the court-appointed trustee seeking to recover billions of dollars for victims of Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

Harrisburg, Pa., must sell a debt-laden trash incinerator, lease its parking system and, if those measures don’t restore fiscal stability, consider a tax on commuters, the city’s mayor said, Bloomberg reports.

Mall giant General Growth Properties Inc., which emerged from Chapter 11 protection last year, plans to spin off a portfolio of 30 lower-quality malls into a newly formed real-estate investment trust called Rouse Properties Inc., WSJ reports.