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November 21, 2005
name='1'>Judge
Conrad Duberstein Passes Away
Hon. Conrad B.
Duberstein
died peacefully at his home on Nov. 18, 2005 at the age of 90. Beloved
husband
of Anne (nee Saggio), loving father of Elysa Belessakos and
father-in-law of
Elias; devoted grandfather of Nicole Chemtob (Mark), Josephine and
Dimitri Belessakos
and Angie Allison; adoring brother of Barbara Roberts and the late
Kathryn Goldberg;
United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York;
former
Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the
Eastern
District of New York, 1984-2005; Courtrooms and Chambers of the United
States
Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern dedicated in his honor; namesake and
guiding
spirit of the Judge Conrad B. Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot
Court Competition
established by St. John’s University School of Law and the
American Bankruptcy
Institute; served in the 91st Infantry Division of the 5th Army from
1943-45,
saw combat in Italy and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple
Heart
and the Combat Infantry Badge; graduated from Brooklyn College and St.
John’s
University School of Law (class of 1942), admitted to the practice of
law in
1942; former partner in Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen,
P.C. and
Schwartz, Rudin & Duberstein; former Judge Advocate General of the
Military
Order of the Purple Heart for the State of New York; recognized for
his outstanding
academic and professional achievements including an honorary Doctor of
Laws
from St. John’s University School of Law; awarded Medal of Honor
by St. John’s
University recipient of the Brooklyn Bar of Association’s Annual
Award for Outstanding
Achievement in the Science of Jurisprudence and Public Service;
recipient of
the Emory University School of Law Lifetime Achievement Award; Fellow
American
Bar Association and the American College of Bankruptcy. Funeral
services will
be held at Park Avenue Synagogue, 50 East 87th Street, New York, NY
10128, on
November 21st at 1 PM. Those who wish to contribute in his memory to
the Park
Avenue Synagogue or Congregation Mount Sinai of Brooklyn Heights, New
York.
Further questions please call Plaza Jewish Community Chapel at (212)
769-4400.
-New York Times
id='2'>Californian
Convicted of Bankruptcy Fraud
An author and
psychologist
who formerly lived in Oakland, Calif., was convicted of two counts of
bankruptcy
fraud and five counts of failure to file income tax returns by a
federal jury
last week, Bay City Newswire reported Friday. After a one-week trial
and three-and-a-half
hours of deliberations, jurors found that 61-year-old Sharon Lee
Caulder had
intentionally concealed the existence of two bank accounts with a
balance of
more than $68,000 on her bankruptcy petition filed in California in
1998. Jurors
also found that Caulder, who now lives in New Orleans, had willfully
failed
to file income tax returns from 1998 to 2002, a period during which
she received
more than $1.7 million in gross income.
href='http://www.cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2005/11/19/n/HeadlineNews…'>Read
more.
Asbestos
id='3'>$3M
Asbestos Verdict Reversed
Maryland’s
second-highest
court has reversed a $3 million jury verdict won by a former paper
mill worker
who alleged his lung cancer stemmed from asbestos exposure at the
plant in western
Maryland, the Associated Press reported Friday. The Court of Special
Appeals
ruled Thursday that defendant Scapa Dryer Fabrics Inc., a Windsor,
Conn.-based
unit of Britain’s Scapa Group PLC, should have been granted a
motion to delay
the 2003 trial to prepare its defense. The case was remanded to
Baltimore City
Circuit Court for a new trial.
href='http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--asbestosve…'>Read
more.
id='4'>Threat
to Enforce Asbestos Payout
The NSW Government
has given
Austrailian James Hardie two weeks to finalize an asbestos
compensation deal
before it brings in legislation to make the company pay, the
Syndney Morning
Herald reported yesterday. At the same time, trades unions and
asbestos
victims’ support groups are preparing a campaign of bans and
public pressure.
On the eve of National Asbestos Awareness Week, the ACTU secretary,
Greg Combet,
said yesterday that time had run out for the company to sign a binding
deal.
href='http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/threat-to-enforce-asbestos-payout/2…'>Read
more.
Pensions
id='5'>Judge
Disallows Pension Bond
A superior court
judge blew
a $550 million hole in California’s budget Thursday, ruling that
the lawmakers
and the governor don’t have the authority to borrow the money
needed to pay
pension obligations for state retirees, SFGate.com reported.
Sacramento Superior
Court Judge Raymond Cadei said that a pension bond proposed by the
administration
and approved by lawmakers is unconstitutional. The state Constitution
requires
voters to approve any borrowing greater than $300,000. A spokesman for
the Department
of Finance said the administration would appeal the ruling. A previous
attempt
to use pension obligation bonds to balance the debt when Gov. Gray
Davis was
governor was found unconstitutional by a judge.
href='http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/18/BAGLFFQ8QD1.DTL'>Read
more.
id='6'>State
Blocked from Issuing Pension Bonds, Case May Affect San
Diego
A Sacramento judge
ruled
Tuesday that the state of California should not be allowed to issue
pension
obligation bonds without voter approval in a case that may eventually
scuttle
the plans of local leaders hoping to solve San Diego’s pension
crisis, the Voice
of San Diego reported Saturday. The ruling, issued by Judge Raymond M.
Cadel
from the Sacramento County Superior Court, rejected the state’s
contention that
it could sell $550 million worth of the bonds to make its annual
payment to
the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. The ruling
only affects
the state’s ability to issue pension obligation bonds and not
local governments.
href='http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/atf/cf/%7B1B6B0B5F-87AA-4272-BDBC-D99ABE…'>Read
Cadel’s tentative ruling, which was upheld Tuesday,
here.
id='7'>Taking
Pension in a Lump Sum: Short-sighted?
The biggest
financial decision
many people will ever make is whether to take their money from a
defined-benefit
pension plan in a lump sum or in monthly payments, the San Franciso
Chronicle
reported yesterday. Turmoil in the pension industry and the agency
that guarantees
corporate defined-benefit plans is making the decision harder. About
half of
these plans give retirees the option of taking their benefit in a
single, one-time
payment known as a lump sum. For people with long careers at the same
company,
the lump sum can reach well into the six figures.
href='http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/20/BUG1IFPV1I1…'>Read
more.
id='8'>Plenty
of Blame for Pension Crisis
Poor stock market
returns
are not the only reason taxpayers will have to bail out a
billion-dollar problem
in Montana’s public pension fund, the Associated Press reported
yesterday. Back
when pension accounts were flush with cash from the red-hot stock
market of
the late 1990s, lawmakers confidently doled out bigger retirement
benefits.
Republicans and Democrats alike were in on it, as were the
state’s pension watchdogs.
Workers who would be getting the bigger checks backed the idea. The
problem
now is that lawmakers cannot legally take away the bigger retirement
checks
and the state faces a $1.4 billion deficit in teacher and public
employee retirement
programs.
href='http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2005/11/2…'>Read
more.
Airlines
id='9'>Exec:
United on Track to Exit Bankruptcy
United Airlines is
"marching
forward" toward exiting bankruptcy early next year, CFO Jake
Brace said
following a court hearing last week, the Associated Press reported
Friday. Brace
said that United’s domestic business continues to improve this
month, as fuel
prices decline and competitors take out U.S. capacity. United, which
last month
applied for five new routes from Chicago and Los Angeles to Mexico,
sees international
expansion opportunities "at the margin," Brace said.
Currently, half
of the airline’s revenue comes from international travel,
although that includes
connecting flights within the United States. Judge Eugene Wedoff has
approved
the airline’s plan to exit bankruptcy, with final hearings
scheduled for Jan.
17 and 18, 2006.
href='http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2005/11/18/ap2346584.html'>Read
more.
id='10'>Northwest
Bankruptcy Leaves Hotels Unpaid
In the months
before filing
for chapter 11 bankruptcy, Northwest Airlines Corp. ran up hundreds of
thousands
of dollars in local hotel bills, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business
Journal
reported Friday. But when the Eagan, Minn.-based carrier entered the
protective
folds of bankruptcy court, the hotels were left out. Now the hotels
are writing
off the bad debt, and are angry with the airline.
href='http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2005/11/21/story1…'>Read
the full story.
id='11'>New
York Firm Wants to Buy Delphi Bankruptcy Claims
A New York company
is offering
quick cash to Delphi Corp. suppliers that have not been paid for parts
delivered
before Delphi sought chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,
Crain’s Detroit
Business reported today. Riverside Claims LLC ran an ad in the
Nov. 7 issue
of Automotive News announcing its intention to buy Delphi
claims from
suppliers for immediate cash.
href='http://www.crainsdetroit.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?articleId=28340'>Read
the full story.
Diocese
id='12'>Judge’s
Order Will Allow Suits Against Diocese to Proceed
A judge has lifted
a 2 1⁄2-year-old
order freezing several lawsuits accusing the Roman Catholic Diocese of
San Diego
of condoning or ignoring staff members who sexually abused children
over the
past few decades, SignOnSanDiego.com reported Saturday. The move is a
first
step toward getting the claims of sexual abuse before juries, said a
lawyer
for people who say they were abused by priests and others who worked
for the
San Diego diocese. Michael Webb, a lawyer for the San Diego diocese,
said the
judge’s order is narrow and only allows limited litigation.
href='http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20051119-9999-1m19priest.html'>Read
more.
id='13'>Love
Rat Hewitt Wins Bankruptcy Reprieve
James Hewitt, who
today won
an eight-week reprieve from being declared bankrupt, Life Style
Extra
reported Friday. He made a career of his exploited affair with
Princess Diana,
however on Friday he was forced to make an application to remortgage a
property
in a desperate bid to pay his mounting tax bills. The extent of
Hewitt’s debt
was not revealed at today’s brief High Court hearing, but it is
believed that
the former cavalry officer owes £2.7 million.
href='http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=BZ1819825T&news_headline=love_…'>Read
the rest.
id='14'>Stelco
Creditors Vote on Firm’s Restructuring Plan Today
After nearly two
years of
bankruptcy protection for Stelco Inc. the insolvent steelmaker’s
creditors are
expected to vote on the company’s restructuring plan Monday. The
Canada-based
steelmaker is laboring to pull itself out from 22 months of bankruptcy
protection.
href='http://www.canada.com/news/business/story.html?id=1e6c2aa0-a969-484e-9c…'>Read
the full story.