Customers of the now-closed LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. are slated to receive between 25 cents and 70 cents on the dollar owed when their claims are settled in bankruptcy court. Who gets what depends on the type of agreement customers had with the company, a subsidiary of Henrico County-based LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.

Interim fees charged by attorneys and other experts in LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.‘s Chapter 11 case will be paid. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin R. Huennekens approved the fee payments yesterday despite objections from creditors. Nearly three dozen creditors of the company’s LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. subsidiary sent written protests to Huennekens objecting to the requests from attorneys and experts for payment of more than $3.8 million in fees and expenses relating to the exchange company’s case.

In the weeks before LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. declared bankruptcy, the company knew it had mounting money problems but continued to take on new customers and their money. Company executives also issued a directive changing how customer cash was to be handled, but reversed that decision upon realizing it would make the firm unable to fulfill its financial obligations.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. is readying to battle some banking giants over investment advice the title insurer now claims led to its undoing. Attorneys for the bankrupt Henrico County-based company have asked to hire a New York law firm to investigate and pursue claims that the company was misled when investing in auction-rate securities. A hearing on the request is scheduled Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond.

Money placed with LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. belongs to the estate and not the customers who entrusted their funds to the now-bankrupt company. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin R. Huennekens ruled yesterday that customers who gave their money to the company to hold temporarily as a way to defer capital-gains taxes have no ownership over the funds.

A New Jersey company is offering to buy claims against a bankrupt subsidiary of LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. for pennies on the dollar. Hain Capital Group has been calling and mailing letters to creditors of LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection in late November along with its parent company.

LandAmerica unit’s top client gets $137 million At least one customer of the now-defunct LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. got its money bank. In U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond yesterday, Judge Kevin R. Huennekens ruled that the closed subsidiary of Henrico County-based LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. could settle with its biggest customer.

A class-action lawsuit claiming breach of contract, fraud and theft of property has been filed relating to LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.‘s 1031 Exchange business. The suit, filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, is on behalf of LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services customers. Named in the suit are the Henrico County-based holding company, its exchange company and several executives, including former chairman and chief executive Theodore L. Chandler Jr., who stepped down Friday; Chief Financial Officer G. William Evans; and controller Christine R. Vlahcevic.