Hedge funds anxious to move ahead with lawsuits over losses from Patriot National Inc. pressed the judge overseeing the insurance-service company’s bankruptcy for action yesterday, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Hudson Bay Master Fund Ltd. and CVI Investments Inc. said their suits against Patriot for breach of contract have been stalled too long, first by the company’s January bankruptcy filing, then by a litigation stay that was supposed to boost chances of a mediated deal. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross yesterday set an Aug. 10 deadline for Patriot to come to terms with the hedge funds, as well as with shareholders and insurers in a mediation that could wrap up the legal trouble that has dogged the company for years. Accused of misleading investors under the leadership of former chief executive Steven Mariano, Patriot has been trying to work out an agreement that would end litigation in courts in New York, Delaware and Florida. “This is the final extension,” Judge Gross said at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.
