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DC Judge To Hold Hearing In WaMu-FDIC Dispute Over Assets

By Brent Kendall, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A federal trial judge in Washington has scheduled a hearing Wednesday to consider pretrial motions in a lawsuit by Washington Mutual Inc. that seeks billions of dollars from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. stemming from the government's seizure of the holding company's banking assets in 2008.

Washington Mutual argues the FDIC wrongly seized and sold certain banking assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), which paid $1.9 billion to the government in September 2008 for WaMu's banking operations.

The holding company also argues that the FDIC sold WaMu's banking assets to JPMorgan for less than they would have sold for in liquidation proceedings.

Similar litigation is pending before a federal court in Delaware.

The FDIC has filed counterclaims against WaMu, and it has asked U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer in Washington to dismiss the WaMu lawsuit before trial.

It's also possible Collyer could delay her proceedings while the litigation in Delaware proceeds.

The case is Washington Mutual Inc. v. FDIC, 09-cv-0533.

WaMu's bank failure was the largest in U.S. history. The bank holding company filed for bankruptcy protection the day after the FDIC seized its banking assets.

-By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222; brent.kendall@ dowjones.com

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  11-03-091800ET
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