Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver leading U.S. efforts to recover worldwide assets of alleged Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford's empire, is suddenly facing a new challenge: a revived Stanford bank liquidation proceeding in Antigua.

The action movie Sahara flopped at the box office when it debuted six years ago, but litigation over the adaptation of a Clive Cussler novel still hasn't let up. Last week a Colorado appeals court threw out a $50 million suit brought by the film's producer against Cussler's agent and publishers, finding that the claims were precluded by a jury's findings in a previous case.

Perhaps Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson scored points with his base when he announced back in January 2008 that the city was suing 21 financial institutions. Likening the banks' activity to that of organized crime, the city claimed the banks had created a public nuisance by fueling subprime mortgages that left certain neighborhoods devastated by foreclosures. But the city's legal reasoning has not impressed Cleveland federal district court judge Sara Lioi, who dismissed the case with prejudice on Friday.

It was already notable when the St. Louis state court judge approved attorneys' fees amounting to a full 35 percent of the purported settlement value of $60 million. But a new appellate brief by an objector to the deal asserts that hard-to-redeem vouchers mean the real value of the settlement for the class is more like $9 million, making the fee award absurdly disproportionate.