JPMorgan's WaMu Deal: Collateral Damage

Updates to clarify status of ongoing legal disputes involving JPMorgan and WaMu.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Lehman Brothers' case against Barclays (BCS Quote) appears to be hitting Barclays' shares, but the dispute involving Washington Mutual (WAMUQ.PK) and JPMorgan Chase is drawing far less attention.

WaMu and JPMorgan are also fighting it out in the courts, with both companies laying claim to $4 billion worth of deposits, according to an article from June on WSJ.com. The article cites an attorney for WaMu who says more than $10 billion is at stake in the case.

The Barclays-Lehman case, which returned to the headlines last week, appears to be weighing on Barclays' shares, which have lagged those of European rivals, including HSBC (HBC Quote), Deutsche Bank (DB Quote), UBS (UBS Quote) and Credit Suisse (CS Quote) over the last 10 days, as well as the stocks of many U.S. banks, including Bank of America (BAC Quote), Wells Fargo (WFC Quote) and, yes, JPMorgan, which is up roughly 20% since the beginning of June.

In an earlier column, I pointed out that JPMorgan has said it expects to be sued in relation to the Lehman Brothers case.