The original suit was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 1995 against the Center's former landlords, Rockefeller Center Properties Associates (RCP). RCP filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 1995 Rockefeller patriarch David Rockefeller's family unloaded 80 percent of the company that controlled the Center to Mitsubishi Estate in the late eighties for $1.4 billion. The family blamed the Japanese partners for the bankruptcy filing. In 1996, a group led by Tishman Speyer Properties bought control of the buildings east of Avenue of the Americas.