Lawyers for the Lehman Brothers US estate will appeal against a decision by English courts that retail investors from Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand should be paid ahead of the failed bank in the unwinding of a complex structured vehicle, according to people familiar with the situation.

The case over the ranking of creditors to a special purpose vehicle – SPV – called Dante, to which Lehman was a swap counterparty, is being closely watched for its potential implications for the securitisation and derivatives market.