Anna Nicole Smith Tied to Lehman Bankruptcy?

According to an article published by The Wall Street Journal, "Yes, there is a fresh connection between the late Anna Nicole Smith and the bankruptcy case involving the shell of Lehman Brothers. Buckle up.

J.P. Morgan and the remains of Lehman Brothers are fighting out in court over charges J.P. Morgan improperly siphoned billions of dollars out of Lehman in its dying days.

But J.P. Morgan late Monday said it wants to move the case out of bankruptcy court, citing the precedent of a recent Supreme Court case that involved, yup, Anna Nicole Smith, her long-dead oil tycoon husband J. Howard Marshall and Smith’s former boyfriend and lawyer, Howard K. Stern. The case was the second time the Supreme Court had weighed in on the the long-simmering dispute over who should collect money from J. Howard Marshall’s estate.

In the June ruling that has proved contentious in bankruptcy circles, the Supreme Court said a bankruptcy court didn’t have power to decide on cases beyond bankruptcy.

At issue was whether the bankruptcy court, which awarded Smith millions of dollars, should be able to wipe out the ruling of the Texas probate court, which ruled for J. Howard Marhsall’s son. (Both Smith and Pierce Marshall have since died.)

J.P. Morgan, taking the place of Pierce Marshall this time, said its court battle with Lehman similarly belongs in a federal court — not in the same New York bankruptcy court also sorting through the leftover bits of Lehman.

Don’t worry, clients. Those high powered J.P. Morgan lawyers at Wachtell Lipton have a good excuse to expense those DVD copies of “The Anna Nicole Show.” The lawyers wrote in a court filing Monday:

“Under the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Stern v. Marshall … only this Court has the authority to adjudicate Lehman Brothers’ claims….Based on that test, the Supreme Court in Stern further held that common-law claims brought by a bankrupt debtor against its creditor could not be adjudicated by the bankruptcy court, even if the common law claims raise issues that overlap with what must be resolved in ruling on the creditor’s proof of claim. The Supreme Court’s decision in Stern prevents the bankruptcy court from adjudicating any of the causes of action asserted against JPMorgan in this lawsuit.”

(Read the J.P. Morgan court filing. Reuters also wrote earlier about J.P. Morgan’s request to move the court case.)"

Read the rest of the article published by Wall Street Journal.

Posted in Anna Nicole Smith , bankruptcy court , Celebrity Bankruptcy , Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy