Hedge funds controlled by Goldman Sachs and GLG have won a vital court ruling over how billions of dollars of clients’ cash held by Lehman Brothers when the US investment bank collapsed should be distributed, the Financial Times reported.

The High Court in London ruled that money that was not properly ring-fenced by Lehman’s European arm could not be claimed out of a $1 billion pool controlled by the bank’s administrators, the report said.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, which sent shockwaves through markets, raised a number of broader issues, including what happens to investment assets temporarily given by investors to prime brokers to be used for such purposes as stock lending. The bank’s demise also raised a shadow over the structured products market, in which Lehman Brothers was a major player.

The newspaper’s report said that the ruling was a victory for Goldman and GLG, whose money was properly separated but the decision meant that several Lehman affiliates as well as other hedge fund clients will not be able to pursue about $3 billion worth of claims against the pool.