Washington Mutual (WaMu) has been a well known wealth manager for many years. Now it seems as if the worst financial crisis over so many years has robbed this company of the chance to have financial strength to continue as it has gone in for bankruptcy filing. The company could be in such a spot that shareholders could be left quite empty handed. The common shareholders could very well file a lawsuit that could continue for years on end. This is because WaMu has gone in for an out of court settlement that is worth around $6 billion and this means that the company will get only a small part of the claims against the estate.
The claims against WaMu why the company has gone in for bankruptcy filing are from bondholders and also preferred shareholders and these claims could be as high as $11 billion. The common shareholders are thus the least priority to be paid back by the company, leading to a lot of distress and heartburn among this constituency of shareholders. This has led to such common shareholders contemplating legal action. Such a move could result in a long drawn out case and lawsuit that could come in the way of any quick or amicable settlement