A client of mine owns a building that they leased to Wamu. One year into a decade long lease Wamu departed and stopped paying rent.

On Sept. 25, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized the assets of Washington Mutual Bank and sold them to JP Morgan Chase Bank for $1.9 billion. The next day, the parent company Washington Mutual Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection [Feb 4th, 2009, Florida Sun-Sentinel].

Lawyers quickly became involved. This is what I understand to be Wamu's position:

Since Wamu Bank was taken over by the Federal Government, they are obviously insolvent. And since they are insolvent, they should enjoy protection from creditors as if they had filed bankruptcy. And therefore be off the hook for their lease payments.

The problem with this argumenet is that Wamu Bank is still out doing business (www.wamu.com)

If Wamu wins this point it sets an ugly precedent. I'll post more here as this plays out over the months ahead.