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What's left of the former investment bank Lehman Brothers will be responsible for $2.38 billion in compensation to hedge funds and institutional investors who were hurt by the bank's actions leading up to the financial crisis a decade ago.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Shelley Chapman of the Southern District of New York ruled from the bench Thursday, in what was a win for Lehman's legal team. The trustees of more than 230 residential mortgage-backed securities trusts argued at trial for $11.4 billion worth of claims against Lehman. The trustees claimed breach of contract on nearly 71,000 loans.

“We are gratified with the court's well-reasoned and thorough ruling, which we believe is a fair result for all creditors of the estate,” Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner Todd Cosenza, who served as lead trial counsel for Lehman, said in a statement.

The case was originally brought by financial institutions that serve as trustees to more than 400 RMBS trusts, which had claimed that Lehman was required to repurchase mortgage loans held in the trusts, based on over 170,000 alleged breach claims, according to Lehman's attorneys.

During the trial, Willkie's attorneys said, Lehman's bankruptcy plan administrator pegged the claims figure at $2.38 billion, which Lehman said was an attempt to resolve the suit in a manner fair to the creditors, allowing immediate distributions, and as a way to avoid years of potential litigation required to adjudicate individual claims.

The ruling from the bench Thursday follows other resolutions in the overall action. Last year, over a dozen holders of the RMBSs accepted, which represented nearly a quarter of the overall securities, settled on their own for approximately $2.4 billion.