http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_W/threadview?m=te&bn=86316&tid=345983&mid=345983&tof=30&frt=2#345983
I said in '08 that this court wanted the parties to work things out. The few rulings she has made have been to nudge the parties (particularly JPM and the FDIC) into settlement posture. Today's ruling won't surprise any long time board readers because in '08 she told the attorney for the WMB noteholders that they were in the wrong court; that they'd have to seek relief from the FDIC. (They eventually took the ingenious route of going after JPM for alleged infractions leading up to the seizure.)
Anyway, what the judge held was entirely expected due to her previous admonition to WMB noteholders as well as the settled law of corporations that they are not liable for debts of affiliates unless (1) they have expressly assumed them OR (2) there is commingling of assets or other behavior that makes affiliates' respective assets indistinguishable. Neither is applicable to the WMI/WMB/WMB fsb family.
This is why I have never been worried about the multi-billion $ claims filed against WMI that I knew belonged to WMB. Weil knows this too, which is why I kept saying he was full of it when he kept alleging 'hopeless' insolvency. He knows WMI's obligations are about $8 billion and, at a minimum, its assets are about $6.3 billion. In fairness to Weil until the claims are formally denied, they're still lurking 'out there', though the court (and people like me) know better.