Among others, the defendants include Target Corp., and CerberusCapital Management and Sun Capital Partners, two of the privateequity firms to which Target sold Mervyn's four years ago.

The lawsuit was filed on Sept. 2 as part of its bankruptcy case,which was filed on July 29. The story begins four years earlierwhen a group including Cerberus and Sun Capital acquired Mervyn'sfrom Target for $1.26 billion in a deal that was structured as twoseparate transactions, one for the real estate and another for thecompany itself. The lawsuit claims the structure of the deal andthe private equity firms' subsequent actions unduly enriched themat the expense of Mervyn's solvency.

"Mervyn's began the day of the closing with more than $1 billionof real estate and, within the blink of an eye, it was gone;Mervyn's received nothing in return," states the lawsuit. "The 2004transaction is a transaction that ultimately led to Mervyn'sbankruptcy and is a fraudulent transfer that cannot withstandscrutiny."