Lehman Brothers, Anna Nicole Smith and goat poo are three things you probably never thought would go together, and yet...in a manner of speaking, they do. As part of the Lehman bankruptcy case, J.P. Morgan and what is left of Lehman are in a court battle over allegations that J.P. Morgan wrongly bled Lehman dry when it was collapsing. But, according to a
column in
Deal Journal today, J.P. Morgan is trying to move certain proceedings in the case out of bankruptcy court due to precedent it says was set in a Supreme Court case that involved, yes, Anna Nicole Smith, Smith’s former boyfriend and lawyer Howard K. Stern, and the billions of Smith's dead husband J. Howard Marshall. From the WSJ column:
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.
What about the goat poo you ask? The current court fight between Lehman and J.P. Morgan includes charges that:
"Lehman knowingly misled J.P. Morgan into keeping securities employees called 'goat poo' to be scattered in 'other people’s backyards.'"
That's a pretty elaborate, even creative, term for "worthless," if that is, in fact, what the employees said and what they intended it to mean.