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Lawyers for Comcast Corp. squared off with Houston Astros owner Jim Crane in a bankruptcy court yesterday over the fate of their troubled Houston regional sports network, which Comcast is trying to put in chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Comcast's lawyers questioned Crane, who bought the major league baseball team and a stake in the network nearly two years ago, for several hours at hearing over the regional sports network's involuntary bankruptcy case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston.

Laboratory Partners Inc. (MedLab), a clinical laboratory doing business in eight states and the District of Columbia, filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 25 with six subsidiaries, according to a press release. MedLab affirmed it will continue to operate its business and serve its customers on an uninterrupted basis through its existing facilities and employees, in all of the markets in which it operates, as it moves forward with its restructuring plan. In conjunction with the filing, MedLab has obtained a $5 million credit facility and line of debtor-in-possession financing from Marathon Special Opportunity Fund, an affiliate of its current senior secured lenders. MedLab intends to seek immediate permission from the bankruptcy court to pursue the sale of two of its divisions to potential purchasers. The company anticipates that, subject to court approval, a court-supervised auction for the Long Term Care division should occur in December 2013. The auction for the Terre Haute area laboratory business should be scheduled in January 2014. The closing of each transaction will occur shortly after each auction.

Green Field Energy Services Inc., an oil field service provider that defaulted on a loan last month, filed for bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Green Field Energy, based in Lafayette, La., listed assets of as much as $500 million and the same amount in liabilities in its chapter 11. Green Field Energy defaulted on principal payment on a credit facility with an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, triggering a cross default on $250 million of senior secured notes, Moody’s Investors Services said in a Sept. 9 report. Moody’s cut its rating on about $200 million of Green Field Energy’s secured debt to Ca from Caa2, according to the report, and said that the company didn’t have enough cash or cash flow to pay its obligations relating to interest expenses, mandatory debt amortization and capital spending.

Chemical maker W.R. Grace & Co. said that it does not expect to emerge from its 12-year bankruptcy before the end of January as it deals with court appeals against its restructuring plan, Reuters reported yesterday. Grace filed for chapter 11 protection in 2001, making it one of the longest bankruptcies in U.S. history, after an asbestos leak at one of its mines led to a slew of lawsuits. Through bankruptcy, Grace has been able to halt debt payments, survive two recessions and take advantage of a U.S. shale energy boom that is fueling demand for catalysts, which help refiners process crude oil. Grace could emerge from bankruptcy by the end of January if there are no further appeals to its restructuring plan, Chief Executive Fred Festa said on a post-earnings call. "If there are appeals filed, our emergence would be delayed, probably by two to three months," Festa said, adding the company would be able to give an update on December 5.

The owners of the Houston Rockets basketball team are siding with Comcast Corp. against Houston Astros owner Jim Crane over the fate of the struggling sports channel that broadcasts the games of both teams, saying that a bankruptcy sale or reorganization is the best way for Comcast SportsNet Houston to survive, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Houston Rockets attorneys said in court papers filed on Monday that the network's proposed bankruptcy case, which the Astros will fight to dismiss at a hearing next week, could allow it to reorganize and continue to "provide the fans in the city of Houston and its surrounding region with the sports programming that they desire." The filing breaks the basketball team's silence over the management dispute within the network that escalated to its involuntary bankruptcy filing on Sept. 27, which was filed by Comcast affiliates that are owed more than $100 million. Comcast wants to buy the network through a bankruptcy auction and has said its offer would be high enough to provide some compensation to the Astros and Rockets.

The Justice Department is challenging DMX’s restructuring, claiming that the rapper’s bankruptcy has so far been filled with delays and inconsistencies, the Wall Street Journal reported today. U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis recently urged a judge to convert the rapper’s chapter 11 case to a chapter 7 liquidation, where DMX would be forced to sell off his assets to repay creditors or toss the rapper out of bankruptcy altogether. DMX filed for chapter 11 protection in July. The watchdog’s request was prompted by the rapper’s failure to show up at a meeting of his creditors last month, to respond to Davis’s request for financial information and for filing court papers that are “in disarray” as well as inconsistent.

An insurer of some of Residential Capital LLC's residential mortgage-backed securities says ResCap's reorganization plan could stop it from going after the trustees that oversee the securities trusts, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Syncora Guarantee Inc. said in a court filing on Monday that it should have a legal right to go after the RMBS trustees' claims but won't because of wording in the reorganization plan. "The provisions of the plan that propose to impair or eliminate such rights should not be approved, and as a condition of confirmation the plan should be modified to delete exculpation of the trustees of the Syncora trusts," Syncora said in the filing. Without the "exculpation," Syncora argues, it would be free to go after the claims on behalf of the RMBS trusts. As part of ResCap's larger reorganization plan, the company allowed a $7.3 billion claim for the trusts representing more than one million original mortgages. Syncora, which insures $2.5 billion worth of the RMBS, said that wording in the reorganization plan suggests that insurers — including itself — will be shut out of collecting money from the trusts, even if the trusts get payments from ResCap.

Capitol Bancorp Ltd. investors who fear the bank-holding company's sale of its banks to Wilbur Ross's Talmer Bancorp will leave them empty-handed want a bankruptcy judge to slow down the deal so rival bidders can make an offer, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Lawyers for the committee representing Capitol's unsecured creditors on Monday objected to the rules governing the sale, claiming that they'll be left holding the bag if the deal proceeds as proposed. The committee wants a bankruptcy judge to extend the timeline governing the sale to give other potential bidders sufficient time to formulate their bids.

Hedge funds that invested in an obscure bond of General Motors Corp.’s old businesses won approval of a settlement that will give some of them 1.8 times the return of other creditors and resolve disputes over how they acted on the eve of the automaker’s collapse, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber yesterday approved a settlement that gives the holders of notes in GM’s Nova Scotia unit a $1.55 billion claim in the bankruptcy. Some, including Fortress Investment Group LLC and Elliott Management Corp., have already received a share of a $367 million cash payment made to holders of the notes, which have a face amount of $1 billion.

Ernst & Young has agreed to pay $99 million to former Lehman Brothers investors who have accused the auditor of helping Lehman misstate its financial records before the investment bank's collapse triggered a financial crisis in 2008, Reuters reported on Friday. The agreement, which must still get court approval, signals the end of a massive class action against Lehman's former directors, as well as several other financial institutions, according to a letter filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan. Lehman is accused of using the infamous "Repo 105" accounting practice to misleadingly understate its leverage to make itself appear more financially solvent. The investors who brought the lawsuit asked the court to suspend the case while the sides draft a settlement agreement.