Editor’s note: The author served as local trial counsel to Lehman Brothers Holdings in Lehman Brothers Holdings v. Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services.
U.S. District Senior Judge Anita Brody of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently presided over a nonjury trial in Lehman Brothers Holdings v. Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services. Brody is expected to render a decision in the coming weeks. Lehman Brothers represents the first occasion for the district court to consider the legal principle of de facto merger under Pennsylvania law following the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Fizzano Brothers Concrete Products v. XLN, 42 A.3d 951 (Pa. 2012). In Fizzano Brothers, the Supreme Court substantially modified the application of the de facto merger doctrine allowing trial courts far greater flexibility in the application of the doctrine to a broader set of facts.
