Joe Lewis, the British billionaire who has lost almost $1 billion (£505 million) on his investment in Bear Stearns, is confident that he will be able to block the takeover of the stricken investment bank by JPMorgan Chase before the deal is completed in three months.

At the weekend, Mr Lewis said: “Finding a counterbidder is attractive, but a lot more difficult. There are two ways to block the deal: first by a shareholder ‘no' vote and second by litigation. We should be able to block the deal by one of these ways.”

Mr Lewis's comments came as Legg Mason, the American fund manager, was thought to be planning to sue the Bear Stearns management team to try to prevent the bank being bought for just under $240million by its larger rival.

It is expected that Legg Mason will argue that Bear's board, led by Alan Schwartz, the chief executive, failed in its fiduciary duty to shareholders to negotiate the highest price possible for investors.

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It is thought that Legg Mason will insist that Bear's board should have pursued the interest of other potential bidders, such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and JC Flowers, the American private equity groups, and Deutsche Bank, the German investment giant.

Last weekend, JPMorgan Chase hurriedly agreed a rescue takeover of Bear in which the stricken bank was valued at 6 per cent of its closing price the day before the deal was made public.

Bear had been forced to the brink of collapse the week before as counterparties and customers fled amid fears that the bank was going bust.

The US Federal Reserve and the US Treasury put Bear Stearns under considerable pressure to secure a takeover before stock markets opened last Monday.

A large number of lawsuits are being drawn up by shareholders in Bear Stearns aggrieved about the price offered by JPMorgan Chase for their stock.

Peter Burke, a partner in Burke, Harvey & Frankowski, an Alabama-based law firm that has been approached by about 40 disgruntled Bear Stearns shareholders, said: “We believe there are a number of different types of lawsuits being prepared against Bear Stearns.

"We are seeing derivative actions - such as that by Joe Lewis - to block the deal. There are also those who are pulling together class actions on behalf of shareholders looking to recoup their investment losses. We might also see employees, who owned 30 per cent of the bank, trying to sue.”

Mr Burke, whose firm is working alongside Mark & Associates, based in New York, said that he would be seeking to pursue individual claims where shareholders had a stake in the bank before the rescue deal worth between $15,000 and $400,000. “Mark & Associates has had inquiries from about 350 shareholders so far,” he said.

Bear Stearns's shareholders are expected to pursue one of two legal arguments to try to secure compensation. Investors who bought stock between March 13 and March 17 could try to accuse Bear Stearns executives of deliberately misleading the stock market by failing to disclose any funding difficulties.

Such an accusation may prove tricky, however, after Mr Schwartz has specifically told investors that concerns about the bank's liquidity emerged during the course of one day.

Shareholders who bought their stock before March 13 are expected to argue that Bear Stearns's directors did not pursue sufficient alternative bidders to extract a higher price.

It is believed that JPMorgan Chase has set aside $6 billion for Bear Stearns redundancy costs and to settle litigation. Bear Stearns failed to return calls yesterday.

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