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Several investment funds with ties to Texas billionaire Tim Headington are trying to push an unfinished Atlanta cancer treatment center into bankruptcy protection, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Lawyers for Zeitgeist Capital LLC and two other funds filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition on Friday for the partially built Emory Proton Therapy Center, stating in court documents that the funds are owed more than $8.2 million. The filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., sets a 20-day timeline for Emory Proton Therapy Center officials to respond to the involuntary case. They didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday. The 107,000-square-foot center, which broke ground in 2013, is scheduled to open in late 2017 and would be the third center developed by California-based Advanced Particle Therapy LLC to begin treating cancer patients. Advanced Particle Therapy officials have raised more than $750 million for their proposal to build four cancer treatment centers across the country but still need at least $110 million, court papers said.

An attorney who filed 13 lawsuits against the Diocese of Gallup, N.M., on behalf of alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse said the disclosure of church records will be an essential part of any settlement in the diocese’s chapter 11 case, the Albuquerque Journal reported today. Robert Pastor, a Phoenix attorney, said claimants and their attorneys in the case are adamant that the diocese must release church records, including the personnel files of accused priests. Attorneys working toward a settlement told Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma last week that they intend to file a reorganization plan with the court later this month. The Diocese of Gallup in 2013 became the nation’s ninth Roman Catholic diocese to file for chapter 11 protection in response to civil lawsuits filed by alleged victims of clerical sex abuse.

A former Watergate prosecutor is due to release a report on a court-ordered fraud investigation into a series of corporate deals involving Caesars Entertainment Corp. that could break a deadlock in one of the biggest fights on Wall Street over the bankruptcy of Caesars’ casino operating unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. Inc. (CEOC), Reuters reported on Friday. Richard Davis and a team of lawyers and advisers have spent a year trying to determine if Caesars fairly tried to rescue CEOC, or stripped away the best properties and left it with faded regional casinos and a crushing $18 billion of debt. The examiner said in a court filing that the report would be filed under seal the week of March 7 with an outside date of March 14, along with a public summary of Davis' findings. The full report will be made public in the weeks following the initial, redacted release. Caesars has proposed injecting $1.5 billion into its operating unit to settle allegations of asset-stripping, and the examiner's report could show whether or not that amount is fair.

Quicksilver Resources Inc.’s bid to tear up pipeline agreements ahead of the sale of its oil-and-natural gas drilling operations raised novel and perplexing legal questions that a bankruptcy judge wants time to consider, the Wall Street Journal reported today. “I will do my best” to decide the issue, a condition of Quicksilver’s pending sale, by the company’s March 31 deadline to close the $245 million deal, Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein said on Friday. Pipeline operators and midstream operators are closely watching Fort Worth, Texas-based Quicksilver and other oil exploration and production bankruptcies out of fear that rulings letting these companies exit their contracts — negotiated before oil prices took a nosedive, and therefore favorable to pipeline companies — could spur a mass exodus. More importantly to Quicksilver, buyer BlueStone Natural Resources II LLC said that it would walk away from its $245 million cash offer if there is a risk it would be bound by Quicksilver’s pipeline agreements with Crestwood Midstream Partners LP. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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The parent of for-profit Mattia College filed for chapter 11 protection on Feb. 29 shortly after it closed its schools in West Kendall and Doral, the South Florida Business Journal reported today. Professional Training Centers listed assets and liabilities both in the range of $1 million to $10 million. It’s owned by Antonio Mattia, and it is likely the case will be converted into a chapter 7 liquidation, according to court filings. Mattia College, which provided training for medical and dental assistants, lost its accreditation status and its ability to receive government-backed student loans. It had more than 500 students and 100 employees before it closed, according to a motion to convert the case to chapter 7 liquidation by U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee Guy Gebhardt.

Fresh & Easy LLC cleared a number of major hurdles yesterday when a bankruptcy judge agreed to shield the former supermarket operator from several potentially onerous and expensive lawsuits, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Following a hearing yesterday, Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon denied two class-action requests from former employees who sued the company, saying the litigation "would disrupt the progress of the case." Fresh & Easy filed for chapter 11 in October and has since been working to sell off its stores and other remaining assets, a process that is "well underway," the judge said. The former employees sued Fresh & Easy for paid-time-off benefits they say they are owed and for allegedly failing to properly notify them of the abrupt loss of their jobs when the grocer shuttered its stores.

Lynn Tilton's Patriarch Partners LLC has been sued over last week's abrupt firing of roughly 1,200 workers at TransCare Corp, shortly after the privately held ambulance company filed for bankruptcy protection, Reuters reported yesterday. TransCare workers accused Patriarch, whose portfolio included the Brooklyn-based company, of failing to provide 60 days notice before terminating them without cause, violating federal and state employment laws known as the WARN Act. Three lawsuits filed in various New York City federal courts seek to recoup up to 60 days wages and benefits, plus unpaid wages for work performed prior to TransCare's bankruptcy. One of the lawsuits also names TransCare as a defendant.

Oilfield servicer GreenHunter Resources Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection on Tuesday as the distress facing its customers ripples out further into the oil and gas industry, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The Grapevine, Texas, company said that despite taking such steps as slashing costs, layoffs and exiting its South Texas and Oklahoma operations to focus on Appalachia, its revenues have suffered as low oil prices continue to plague the exploration and production companies that form its customer base. GreenHunter's bankruptcy filing comes a little more than a month after its lender declared it in default on nearly $13 million in note debt. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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The operator of a 41-mile Texas toll road connecting San Antonio to Austin filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday due to dwindling cash, Reuters reported. SH 130 Concession Co LLC, which operates the section of state highway 130, is jointly owned by the Cintra unit of Spain's Ferrovial SA and Zachry American Infrastructure of San Antonio. The operator struck a $1.3 billion agreement with Texas in 2006 to finance, develop and operate segments five and six of the highway, which boasts an 85 mile-per-hour speed limit, the highest in the country. Construction began in 2009 and the highway opened in 2012, allowing the operators to begin collecting tolls. However, the highway never lived up to traffic projections, according to credit rating agency Moody's, and in court documents the operator said it had run short of cash.

Lenders are giving Sports Authority Inc. until the end of April to find a buyer and close a deal to save part of the ailing retail chain, which sought bankruptcy protection yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Nearly 140 stores are already being sacrificed to appease lenders owed more than $1 billion and more may be closed unless the company finds a buyer or manages to put together a turnaround plan, court papers say. Ahead of a bankruptcy court hearing today, Sports Authority sketched out its strategy of pursuing a dual-track process, negotiating a chapter 11 reorganization plan while looking for a buyer. However, $595 million in bankruptcy loans come due June 30, which doesn’t give the beleaguered retailer much time. Chief executive Michael Foss said Wednesday that parties have expressed “strong interest” in buying or investing in some or all of Sports Authority. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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