CRA Senior Consultant Marti P. Murray served as the rebuttal expert on behalf of the excluded lenders in the Serta Simmons Bedding liability management exercise uptier litigation (an adversary proceeding of the bankruptcy In re Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC, et al.).
On July 7, 2026, the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas issued its damages ruling, awarding the excluded lenders approximately $261.13 million in damages, plus $142 million prejudgment interest starting from June 2020. As part of the ruling, the judge cited Ms. Murray’s testimony, noting that she was “more persuasive” than the opposing expert.
Ms. Murray’s opinion focused on issues of indicative pricing, market depth, and liquidity in the distressed bank debt market. The judge’s opinion found that the excluded lenders “established that there was no real market to mitigate losses into and that the lack of market depth was confirmed by Excluded Lenders’ efforts to sell after the 2020 Transaction” and supported that finding by citing Ms. Murray’s opinions that “the actual market could not have absorbed the Excluded Lenders’ position” of “over $700 million face amount of First Lien Term Loans.”
Ms. Murray had previously submitted an expert report in this matter, in which she opined that the transaction did not constitute an “open market purchase.” Her opinion on open-market purchases aligned with the Fifth Circuit’s 2024 opinion, and the case was remanded back to Bankruptcy Court.
A CRA team led by Sam Lynch, Ana Balcarcel, and Gara Paulson supported Ms. Murray in her testimony.
