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November 4, 2005
name='1'>Trustee
Will Reopen Iowa Implement Dealer
A federal
bankruptcy judge
decided Tuesday to allow the interim trustee to reopen the Walterman
Implement
proceedings, the Waterloo Courier reported yesterday. The
trustee appointed
to the case, Renee Hanrahan, an attorney in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, asked
for permission
to operate the facility and the opportunity to lease equipment during
bankruptcy
proceedings. Walterman Implement’s creditor, CNH Capital
America, forced the
business into bankruptcy claiming the business misappropriated funds
and owes
more than $22 million. CNH Capital America filed an involuntary
chapter 7 petition
Oct. 21. The implement dealer later closed. Hanrahan said that CNH
Capital America
will lease the premises and operate the business. The company will
rehire former
employees and hopes to open Monday. Hanrahan did not say how many
people will
accept their former jobs.
href='http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2005/11/03/news/regional/5f70cae6845…'>Read
more.
id='2'>CFO
Burns to Leave Mirant
Michele Burns, who
has overseen
the recent chapter 11 restructuring of U.S. energy marketer Mirant,
will leave
the company once it has emerged from bankruptcy, EnergyRisk.com
reported yesterday.
Burns, who joined Mirant as CFO in April 2004 from Delta Air Lines,
departs
by mutual consent, says Mirant spokesman Dave Thompson. She leaves to
pursue
other interests and has made no decision on her next move. There was
no prior
agreement that this would happen following the restructuring. James
Iaco, most
recently a private investor, will take over as CFO no later than Nov.
15, but
Burns will remain CRO until emergence, which Mirant is aiming to
complete by
the end of 2005. Iaco was a president and CFO at California-based
Edison Mission
Energy from 1994-2000. Linn Williams, also formerly of Edison Mission
Energy,
joins Mirant as general counsel, to replace Doug Miller, who will
remain with
the company through chapter 11 emergence. Meanwhile, Aldie Warnock,
senior vice-president,
government and regulatory affairs, has resigned.
id='3'>GM
Bracing for Delphi Strike?
General Motors
Corp. is ramping
up production despite weak sales to prepare for a possible strike at
Delphi,
its largest supplier, according to a published report, CNN reported
today. A
GM spokesman confirmed to the Detroit News that it is preparing
in case
33,000 United Auto Workers union members at its former parts unit walk
off the
job in December. The world’s largest auto parts manufacturer,
which filed for
bankruptcy court protection in October, has asked the judge in that
case to
void the UAW contract. Delphi workers and officials with other parts
suppliers
say GM has boosted orders for parts, forcing some parts plants to run
on overtime
to keep pace. At the same time, the newspaper reports that GM is
operating several
assembly plants on overtime after increasing vehicle production 8
percent in
October despite a 26 percent sales dip.
href='http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/04/news/fortune500/gm_delphi_strikethreat/…'>Read
more.
Asbestos
id='4'>Asbestos
Lawyer Fights On
On Monday, a South
Carolina
judge disallowed about 500 claims in the bankruptcy of chemical giant
W.R. Grace,
finding that attorney Daniel A. Speights had not followed proper
procedures
in filing claims on behalf of parties who didn’t expressly
authorize the lawyer
to sue for them, CNN reported yesterday. Still, the judge set a
hearing for
December to determine whether Speights could resurrect the cases by
bringing
a new class action in the bankruptcy setting. The judge also expunged
1,495
claims Speights brought for properties with no Grace product in them,
which
he had consented to drop ten days earlier. In August, Speights
admitted that
of the 2,938 claims he had filed, 61 percent involved buildings that
did not
contain any Grace products; he was suing Grace solely on a conspiracy
theory,
he explained. He even acknowledged filing 400 claims for clients he
could not
identify.
href='http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/02/news/midcaps/speights_fortune/index.htm'>Read
more.
id='5'>Canadian
Government Improves Asbestos Protection for Workers
The Ontario
government’s
Occupational Health and Safety Act, meant to improve health and safety
protection
for construction workers who work with asbestos, took effect Nov. 1,
2005, HRinfodesk.com
reported yesterday. In time, the government intends to introduce
improved training
requirements as well, which are planned to come into effect in
November 2007.
The expanded protection is based on the latest scientific and
technical knowledge
about asbestos.
href='http://www.hrinfodesk.com/preview.asp?article=18311&title=Government%20…'>Read
more.
id='6'>State
Sues Company over Asbestos Violations
Attorney General
Lisa Madigan’s
office filed suit Monday against the owner of a St. Clair, Ill.,
building for
allegedly launching an asbestos-removal project in violation of
environmental
laws, the Belleville News Democrat reported today. The lawsuit
charges
Frey Properties of Highland LLC and William "Willie" M. Frey
with
three identical counts each of violations of the National Emission
Standards
for Air Pollutants for asbestos, air pollution and nonpayment of the
statutorily
required fees before they began remodeling the old K of C Hall in
Swansea, Ill.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency identified Willie Frey as
the person
who oversaw the alleged illegal asbestos removal. The complaint seeks
an injunction
to require Frey Properties and Willie Frey to submit a plan for the
safe removal
and disposal of the asbestos and each to pay civil penalties of
$50,000 for
the alleged violations and an additional $10,000 penalty for each day
the violations
continued.
href='http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/local/13078826.htm'>Read
more.
id='7'>New
Sex Abuse Suits Filed against Colorado Diocese
Five men filed suit
alleging
they were molested three decades ago by a Catholic school teacher in
Pueblo,
Colo., and that church officials failed to protect them, the
Associated Press
reported yesterday. The lawsuits bring the number of claims against
the Diocese
of Pueblo to eight, and the Marianist Province of the United States
alleged
that William Mueller sexually abused students at the now-closed
Roncalli High
School. Mueller is not named as a defendant in the suits. He is a
former member
of the order and was once band director at the school. The suits,
filed Wednesday
in Pueblo County District Court and made available yesterday, allege
that the
diocese and the Marianist order knew about the alleged abuse, but took
steps
to conceal it to protect Mueller and themselves.
href='http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/13073757.htm'>Read
the full story.
id='8'>Merck
Wins Big in New Jersey Vioxx Trial
The nation’s
second trial
over health effects of the drug Vioxx got swamped in New Jersey
yesterday, as
a jury categorically rejected claims that failure to warn about the
painkiller’s
risks caused a user’s heart attack, the New Jersey Law
Journal reported
today. The jury found, 8-1, that Merck & Co. properly alerted
prescribing
physicians to a link between Vioxx and an increased risk of
cardiovascular events,
and found unanimously that there were no consumer fraud violations in
the way
Merck marketed Vioxx to physicians. As a result, the jury never
reached the
question of proximate causation of postal worker Frederick
"Mike"
Humeston’s heart attack. The verdict enables Merck to overcome
the risk of collateral
estoppel on the failure-to-warn issue. Had the jury found in the
plaintiff’s
favor on that count, the drugmaker could have been precluded from
retrying the
issue of adequacy of its warnings.
href='http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1131012312488'>Read
more.
id='9'>Don’t
Push Portus into Bankruptcy, Co-founder Pleads
Boaz Manor,
co-founder of
collapsed investment company Portus Alternative Asset Management Ltd.
in Jerusalem,
has pleaded through his lawyer to receiver KPMG Inc. to reconsider
moves toward
placing the company into bankruptcy, the Globe and Mail
reported today.
In the first communication from Mr. Manor’s Tel Aviv-area
lawyer, Yehuda Weinstein,
in more than a month, a letter sent to KPMG yesterday insisted that if
all investments
were left in place until maturity, investors could be repaid in full.
href='http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051104…'>Read
more.
Airlines
id='10'>Delta
Pilots Reassemble Strike Committee
Leaders of the
pilots’ union
at bankrupt Delta Air Lines Inc., furious at management’s
attempt to terminate
their contract, are reestablishing a committee that would prepare for
a possible
strike, Reuters reported yesterday. In a letter to pilots dated Nov.
2, union
President Lee Moak said that the company "never had any
intention"
of trying to reach a meaningful agreement on givebacks before moving
this week
in court to void their contract. Delta said that it desperately needs
salary
and benefit cuts from its only unionized group, which would reduce
annual costs
by $325 million. Without the cuts, the airline said that it could fail
in its
drive for larger company-wide savings, default on financial covenants
and have
trouble emerging from bankruptcy. Delta has said that it would be
willing to
meet again with pilots.
href='http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/03/news/fortune500/delta.reut/index.htm'>Read
more.
id='11'>Commentary:
U.S. Airlines—All-time Losers and Counting
This must be the
dumbest
American industry ever. For the past 58 years, or ever since their
profit-and-loss
records have been kept, U.S. airlines have rung up a cumulative net
loss of
$14 billion—a loser for all time, an editorial piece by
Bloomberg News
said today. There will be another loss of as much as $10 billion in
2005, the
carriers’ trade group estimates. Three of the five biggest U.S.
airlines are
hiding from creditors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. And these
are good
times for the U.S. economy. Airline executives have excuses for their
staggering
$32 billion in losses during the past four years, which wiped out what
through
2000 had been a cumulative historical profit of $18 billion.
href='http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_pauly…'>Read
more.
id='12'>Northwest
Pilots Union Agrees to Pay Cut
Leaders of the union for Northwest Airlines pilots endorsed a
temporary contract
that would cut the pilots’ hourly pay rates by 23.9 percent, a
move they say
will give them time to negotiate a long-term contract, the
Associated Press
reported today. The Air Line Pilots Association executive committee
voted
8-2 Thursday in favor of recommending the pay cut to its members. If
approved,
the cuts would save Northwest about $215 million annually and could
give the
union more time to negotiate a long-term contract. Northwest
officials have
said they want unions representing the pilots, flight attendants and
ground
workers to accept 60 percent of the permanent concessions the
airline is seeking
from each group by mid-November. If the unions meet those terms, the
airline
said it would defer plans to ask a bankruptcy judge on Nov. 16 to
cancel labor
contracts.
In other news, the New York Times reported today that
Northwest Airlines
had the worst on-time performance in September among 20 airlines
tracked by
the Department of Transportation, even though the airline industry
as a whole
improved its on-time performance in September. "Our on-time
performance
was at its lowest point in the weeks leading up to the strike,"
which
began in mid-August, said Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch.
Northwest filed
for bankruptcy in September.
id='13'>Owens
Financials Announced
Owens Corning
reported third-quarter
2005 net sales of $ $1.618 billion for the three-month period ended
Sept. 30,
the highest quarterly total in company history, compared to net sales
of $1.541
billion over the same period of 2004, BankruptcyData.com reported
today. For
the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, sales totaled $ $4.61 billion, a
10 percent
increase, compared to net sales of $4.19 billion over the same period
of 2004.
For the third quarter, the company reported net income of $267
million, compared
to $94 million in the same period of 2004. For the three-month and
nine-month
periods diluted earnings per common share were $4.82 and $80.19,
compared to
$1.57 and $2.20 per common share over the same time period of
2004.
id='14'>MCI
Reports Profit, Though Sales Fall
MCI, the
long-distance telephone
company being bought by Verizon Communications, posted its second
consecutive
quarterly profit since emerging from bankruptcy, helped by lower
administrative
costs and a tax reduction, Bloomberg News reported today. Ashburn,
Va.-based
MCI said yesterday that its third-quarter net income was $271 million,
or 82
cents a share, after a loss of $3.4 billion, or $10.65, a year earlier
when
it wrote down the value of its network. Sales fell 12 percent, to
$4.47 billion.
id='15'>Attorney
Finds Morgan Stanley Executives Liable
An attorney for
financier
Ron Perelman told a Florida judge yesterday that Morgan Stanley
executives should
be held criminally liable for withholding company e-mails and
misrepresenting
facts in a civil lawsuit between the two, the Associated Press
reported yesterday.
Attorney Jack Scarola blamed Morgan Stanley legal executives for
”assaulting
the civil justice system” by continuing to keep evidence from
the court. Morgan
Stanley Attorney Mark Hansen admitted that some information filed with
the court
was inaccurate, but he said that does not meet Florida’s high
standard for criminal
contempt charges. The hearing Thursday before Palm Beach County
Circuit Judge
Elizabeth Maass is the latest round between Morgan Stanley and
Perelman, the
billionaire chairman of Revlon Inc. who won $1.58 billion in a jury
trial in
May, when he sued Morgan Stanley contending that the firm covered up
the faltering
finances of Sunbeam Corp. so that Perelman would sell his Coleman
outdoor gear
company to Sunbeam in 1988. Sunbeam filed for bankruptcy protection in
2001.
Morgan Stanley has said it will appeal.
id='16'>Okla.
Contractor Files Bankruptcy
An Oklahoma City,
Okla.,
contractor, who is under investigation by the FBI, has filed for
personal bankruptcy,
saying he owes more than $1 million, the Oklahoman reported
today. James
Edward Newman Jr. and his wife, Quanah, filed just two weeks after he
agreed
to have his company pay Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. $241,583 to
resolve a
fraud lawsuit. Attorneys were uncertain Thursday whether OG&E
still can
collect on the judgment against Terra Tech LLC in light of the
bankruptcy filing.
href='http://www.newsok.com/article/1667363/?template=business/main'>Read
the full story.