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JPMorgan Chase & Co. and certain affiliates have agreed to pay $797.5 million to resolve all remaining litigation left over from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s 2008 bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. JPMorgan paid $1.42 billion in 2016 that resolved two other major pieces of litigation. That settlement, approved by the bankruptcy court last February, allowed Lehman to make additional payments to creditors of about $1.49 billion. The most-recent settlement is subject to bankruptcy court approval. A hearing has been set for Feb. 16, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Lehman filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history in September 2008, with $613 billion in debt. The case is Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. v. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA (In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.), 11-06760, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

The major U.S. source for elements vital to electronics, from cellphones to defense systems, is going up for auction in bankruptcy court, with a $40 million opening offer from an entity identified as Rare Earth Global Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported today. California’s Mountain Pass mine, the sole significant developed source for crucial rare earths electronics elements in the U.S., is destined to go on the auction block in March, according to papers filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Up for sale is land and some equipment at the mine, according to court papers. Mineral rights at the site belong to an entity called Secured Natural Resources LLC, which is owned by creditors of the mine’s former owner, Molycorp Inc., including JHL Capital Group LLC. The sale plan is the product of months of work by bankruptcy trustee Paul Harner, who was left with the Mountain Pass mine at the end of the contentious bankruptcy proceeding of its former parent, Molycorp.

Eidolon Brands and the Ben Hogan Golf Equipment Co. voluntarily filed for chapter 11 protection in the Northern District of Texas, Golf.com reported yesterday. Technically, Ben Hogan Golf is still in business, and is trying to develop a sustainable business plan while raising new capital. Its clubs continue to be sold throughout the country. The company’s top creditors are Perry Ellis International (owed $267,000) and Conti Edgecliff-Sias LLC, the company’s landlord in Forth Worth (owed $77,256.74), according to a report in the Dallas Morning News. Perry Ellis International is the company that licensed the Ben Hogan name to the equipment company.

A defense lawyer for an indicted Dewey & LeBoeuf executive wants Steven Davis — the firm's former chairman — to appear as a witness in his retrial, the New York Law Journal reported yesterday. But whether Davis will testify during retrial is an open question. The request suggests that the retrial may not be so similar to the first trial, which resulted in a hung jury in the criminal case against Davis, Stephen DiCarmine and Joel Sanders. Davis signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office after the mistrial in October 2015, allowing him to avoid retrial. As part of the agreement, prosecutors have agreed to drop charges against him in five years. But prosecutors are continuing with charges against DiCarmine and Sanders, who are accused of misleading investors and lenders about Dewey's finances before the firm's 2012 bankruptcy. Opening arguments are expected to start next week in their case.

A New York pension fund seeking $31 million from Hanjin Shipping Co. asked court permission to investigate ties between the South Korean carrier and its parent entity, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Yesterday’s filing in U.S Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey marks an attempt to draw the Hanjin Group conglomerate into the U.S. bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping, which filed in August for receivership proceedings in Korea. The maritime carrier sought recognition of its insolvency in the U.S. days later by filing for chapter 15 protection, the section of the U.S. bankruptcy code covering foreign corporate debtors. A longshoremen’s pension fund is pursuing a $31 million “withdrawal liability” from Hanjin Shipping in the courts of both countries, according to yesterday’s filing. That represents the amount the New York Shipping Association-International Longshoremen’s Association Pension Trust Fund says that the carrier owes for pension benefits that will be paid out in the future. The pension fund says it wants to know whether the Hanjin Group conglomerate’s other businesses, including the world’s third-largest cargo airline, Korean Air, may be a close enough relative of the shipping unit that they, too, are liable for the $31 million tab.

In Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson, No. 16-348, the Supreme Court is consider two questions: whether filing a claim on a stale debt violates the FDCPA and whether the Bankruptcy implicitly repeals the FDCPA in this context, according to an analysis from ABI Resident Scholar Prof. Andrew B. Dawson. The Supreme Court recently heard the appeal on oral argument, with the Justices’ questions focusing primarily on the first issue. Although it is always risky to predict outcomes based on oral argument, it is nonetheless informative to consider the concerns expressed by the Justices, both for this case and for the next FDCPA challenge the Court has agreed to hear. Click here to read the full analysis from Prof. Dawson.