A bankruptcy judge indicated Wednesday that creditors may not have to wait long to find out whether she will confirm Washington Mutual Inc.'s $7 billion Chapter 11 plan.
"I'm a long way towards issuing a decision," Judge Mary Walrath said at the start of a session in which she will hear a final debate over the plan.
The remark is welcome news to creditors who expect to rake in the cash and who have been clamoring for speed in a case that began nearly three years ago. Washington Mutual's first bid to exit bankruptcy failed earlier this year, when Walrath rejected the Chapter 11 plan for assorted defects.
Shareholders and others being left out in the cold under the Chapter 11 plan are mustering their final arguments in a last-ditch effort to defeat it. They said Washington Mutual settled valuable claims related to its bank unit for just enough to pay creditors, leaving billions of dollars of damages on the table.
