The Daily Docket: Judge Sides With Barclays in Lehman Suit

A bankruptcy judge ruled in favor of Barclays PLC in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s multibillion-dollar lawsuit. An affiliate of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. has offered $1.48 billion for a group of luxury resorts that have filed for bankruptcy. Lehman’s commodity-services unit sued Sempra Energy Trading LLC for $104.7 million.

Pub Founded by NFL Hall of Famer Files for Chapter 11

Thirsty Chicagoans will still be able to sip beer in the historic brewpub founded by Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton while its owners navigate bankruptcy.

America’s Historic Roundhouse owner Scott Ascher told the Daily Herald that he turned to Chapter 11 bankruptcy to sell the circular dining, drinking and entertainment venue’s building. Money from the quick sale would pay back debts and taxes.

U.S. Protests Canadian Drug Maker’s Insolvency Case

The federal government is questioning whether our neighbors to the north will be looking out for the U.S. taxpayers in a Canadian pharmaceutical company’s insolvency case.

The National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services objected last week to Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s request to gain U.S. courts’ recognition of its case in Canada. The Vancouver drug maker sought that recognition through its Chapter 15 bankruptcy filing with the Wilmington, Del., bankruptcy court.

Angiotech holds a drug development license from NIH and already owes the U.S. government $45,000 in missed payments related to that permit. The agencies said recognition of the Canadian case would result in the administration of the license under “foreign law.”

The Daily Docket: Investors Bid $290M For Blockbuster

Blockbuster Inc. agreed to sell itself for $290 million to a consortium of its investors, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has sent letters warning of possible lawsuits to former executives of the failed Washington Mutual Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. says Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s tried to stick it with “goat poo” securities that Barclays Group PLC didn’t want.

Small Business Bankruptcies Fall 18%

America’s biggest companies have been posting healthier profits for months, but new figures show that the economy is getting better for the little guys, too.

Equifax’s latest report on small business bankruptcy filings shows an encouraging 18% drop during the fourth quarter of 2010 compared with the same period the year before, marking the sixth quarter in a row that filings fell.

Bankruptcy experts and business leaders said they were unsurprised by the decline, pointing to stronger consumer spending and more forgiving borrowing requirements.

The Daily Docket: Borders Gets OK to Shut 200 Stores

A bankruptcy judge on Thursday said Borders Group Inc. can start liquidating 200 of its 642 stores, Citadel Broadcasting Corp., fresh from bankruptcy, said it is in exclusive negotiations to sell itself to Cumulus Media Inc. in a deal valued at more than $2.4 billion and the company behind New York’s famed H&H Bagels filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

H&H Bagels Owner Bakes Up Bankruptcy Filing

The company behind New York’s famous H&H Bagels filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday to avoid being locked out of its New Jersey manufacturing facilities.

H&H Bagels president and founder Helmer Toro said in court papers that his company, Garden Operation Realty LP, has been hit with the double whammy of the economic downturn and expensive litigation. One lawsuit in particular, with its landlord in Secaucus, N.J., resulted in the appointment of a rent receiver who recently won a court order of possession that could have resulted in the “imminent padlocking” of the space the company leases there.

The Chapter 11 filing automatically halts all pending litigation and protects Garden Operation’s assets from its creditors. With such breathing room, Toro said the company can leverage its “excellent relations” with its customers and vendors in order to keep on baking.

Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza Chain Giordano’s Enters Bankruptcy

Chicago’s Giordano’s Enterprises Inc., home of the “world famous” deep-dish pizza, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday.

According to documents served up Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago, Giordano’s sought Chapter 11 protection along with 32 affiliates. In court papers, Giordano’s said it has “an urgent and immediate need for cash to continue to operate.”

Giordano’s, where every pizza “is a slice of heaven,” owes more than $45 million to lender Fifth Third Bank. The company won approval Thursday to use a portion of its $36 million bankruptcy loan so it can keep its doors open and pay its vendors and its employees during its bankruptcy case.

Kenneth Starr’s Companies File for Bankruptcy Liquidation

Companies tied to Kenneth Starr, who admitted to bilking his celebrity clients and other investors out of millions of dollars, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation Thursday.

The bankruptcy filings by Starr Investment Advisors LLC and Starr & Co. come as Starr–who once counted Martin Scorsese and Wesley Snipes among his clients–awaits sentencing next month on one count of money laundering. In a plea agreement struck last year, Starr pleaded guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of more than 12 years’ imprisonment. The Wall Street Journal reported that Starr’s lawyer is seeking a more lenient sentence of five years for his 67-year-old client.

Starr himself (not the prosecutor in the Whitewater investigation) faces an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, which court papers show several creditors filed against him last month.

Food Company That Touted Healthy Options Enters Chapter 11

Gage Food Products sought help from the bankruptcy court earlier this week, but the company also once tried to get the attention of First Lady Michelle Obama and Food Network star Jamie Oliver.

In May, the suburban Chicago company wrote an open letter that points to all of the healthy products that it has pushed on its biggest customers: schools, camps and day cares.

“The issue of childhood obesity is a top subject in the news today (with obesity now being called a national security risk by [the U.S. Department of Defense]) and schools are becoming the subject of a lot of scrutiny,” the letter wrote. “More and more, we are being asked what we can do to help by our customers [School Foodservice Directors] and we have responded.”