The Daily Docket: Lehman Wins Approval on SunCal Plans

A California bankruptcy judge Tuesday approved Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s Chapter 11 plans for more than a dozen real-estate projects that had been caught up in the legal tug of war between the failed investment bank and land developer SunCal Cos. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review article here.

Unable to pay its debts during an era of “staycations,” a collection of luxury timeshare vacation spots owned by Pacific Monarch Resorts Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, asking to sell itself at an auction where a larger competitor hopes to put in the first $49.5 million bid. Click here to read the article in DBR Small Cap.

(The Daily Bankruptcy Review and DBR Small Cap are daily newsletters with comprehensive coverage and analysis of emerging and in-progress insolvencies and turnarounds. For a two-week trial to DBR, click here. For DBR SC, click here.)

Extended Stay Hotels’ David Lichtenstein is defending his 2009 decision to put the hotel chain in bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reports. The real-estate investor has been ordered to pay a $100 million penalty to lenders.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the brutal beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow could figure heavily in a Los Angeles Dodgers hearing next week.

The Financial Times reports on the discussion of Bank of America’s move to move derivatives exposure from Merrill Lynch.

The trustee for David Bergstein’s movie-production companies—including Thinkfilm LLC and Capitol Films Development LLC—is seeking at a hearing Wednesday to convert the Chapter 11 cases into Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidations, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The Am Law Daily notes that even though corporate bankruptcy filings have dropped since their 2009 peak, big law firms are still benefiting from the latest “bankruptcy wave.”

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