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December 6, 2005
name='1'>Land
Ownership Questioned after Diocese Bankruptcy
The first
bankruptcy in the
nation declared by a Roman Catholic diocese has raised a thorny
question whose
answer may have an enormous impact on any future claims by victims of
alleged
priest sex abuse—who owns the churches and the property they are
standing
on? Lawyers for the victims say it’s the diocese, the Associated
Press
reported today. Attorneys for the Archdiocese of Portland say that it
is the
individual parishes and Catholic schools. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
Elizabeth
Perris will ultimately decide who owns church property—and
today she
will hear the arguments on both sides. The case could set a precedent
over whether
federal law trumps Catholic doctrine when it comes to church property,
according
to legal scholars and some of the attorneys involved in the case.
href='http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2005/12/05/news/news10.txt'>Read
more.
id='2'>Stelco
Gets One-day Extension
Stelco Inc. was
given only
a one-day extension of its creditor protection yesterday as the judge
presiding
over the case stepped up pressure on the company and its stakeholders
to reach
a deal on a restructuring plan, CBC News reported today. Stelco had
asked for
a seven-day extension until Dec. 12. Ontario Superior Court Justice
James
Farley said that the parties involved in the case "should
refrain from
playing chicken."
href='http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/2005/12/05/stelco-051205.html'>Read
more.
id='3'>Banker:
Delta Can Emerge from Bankruptcy
A Wall Street investment banker testified yesterday that Delta Air
Lines
Inc. will be able to emerge from bankruptcy if it follows a plan to
slash
$3 billion in costs that includes a hotly debated $325 million cut
in pilot
wages, the Associated Press reported today. Asked by Judge
Prudence Carter
Beatty if the bankrupt carrier’s management was capable of
bringing the
airline out of bankruptcy successfully an investment banker with the
Blackstone
Group that is advising Delta, said "yes."
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/05/AR20051…'>Read
more.
In other news, ABX Air Inc. said yesterday that the U.S. Bankruptcy
Court
for the Southern District of New York has approved its purchase of
11 Boeing
767-200 passenger aircraft from bankrupt carrier Delta Air Lines
Inc., Reuters
reported. The cargo airline had agreed to buy the planes before
Delta filed
for bankruptcy protection, but Delta filed a motion with the
bankruptcy court
requesting approval of the sale, subject to higher bids at an
auction. Since
no other bids were received, the court approved the sale as
originally planned,
ABX said.
id='4'>Health
Specialist Expects to File for Chapter 11
Curative Health
Services
Inc., a specialist in chronic wound care, said yesterday that it
expects to
file for chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of an agreement reached with
debtholders
on a restructuring plan, Businessweek reported yesterday. An
ad hoc
committee of bondholders, representing approximately 80 percent of its
10.75
percent senior notes due 2011, worked with Curative on a deal that
would swap
$185 million of existing senior debt for a cash payment of $27.75
million and
all of the equity in the reorganized company.
href='http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8EA8AM00.htm?campaign_id=…'>Read
more.
id='5'>Grocery
Chain Could Emerge from Bankruptcy by Spring
Buehler Foods Inc.,
which
owns and operates grocery stores in five states, could emerge from
bankruptcy
protection by spring, the Associated Press reported today. Paul
Deignan,
one of the attorneys for Buehler Foods, based in Jasper, Ind., said
that the
company’s debt restructuring plan is moving forward and its
major creditors
are nearing agreement. The company was to have submitted a plan by
last Thursday,
but a few details remained to be worked out, Deignan said. The U.S.
Bankruptcy
Court in Evansville extended the deadline to Dec. 21.
href='http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/13337188.htm'>Read
more.
id='6'>NYSE
to Suspend Trading of Calpine Stock
The New York Stock
Exchange
(NYSE) said yesterday that it plans to suspend shares in Calpine Corp.
from
trading and will seek to delist the stock, citing its "abnormally
low selling
price" and a legal ruling that could push the power producer into
bankruptcy,
the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The suspension will begin
before
the market opens today, the NYSE said.
href='http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/12/05/financ…'>Read
more.
id='7'>Justice
Village, Ill., President Pleads Innocent of Fraud Charges
Justice Village,
Ill., President
Melvin VanAllen Jr. is free on his own recognizance after pleading
innocent
today to bankruptcy fraud charges, the Associated Press reported
today. U.S.
Attorney’s Office spokesman Randall Samborn says that the
32-count indictment
accuses VanAllen of failing to list assets and income in a personal
bankruptcy
case filed in January 2004. It also alleges that VanAllen illegally
structured
multiple cash deposits to his bank account in amounts less than $10
thousand.
Prosecutors have refused to say where the money VanAllen deposited
came from.
U.S. District Judge David Coar scheduled VanAllen’s next court
appearance for
Feb. 24.
id='8'>Judge:
Bennett Consents to Asset Freeze
One-time Refco Inc.
top executive
Phillip R. Bennett has consented to maintaining a freeze on more than
$100 million
in assets that he received from the sale of stock in the
company’s initial public
offering in August, Reuters reported yesterday. In an order signed
Friday, but
filed publicly yesterday, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan
said that
Bennett has agreed to "an indefinite extension" that keeps
in place
a freeze on assets he received from the sale of more than 5.3 million
shares
in Refco’s IPO this summer. Read more.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/24-12052005-579689.html
id='9'>Mirant
Posts $225 Million Nine-Month Loss Before Items
Bankrupt power
producer Mirant
Corp. said yesterday that its loss before items for the first nine
months of
2005 widened to $225 million from $127 million for the same period
last year,
Reuters reported. The company, which expects to emerge from chapter 11
bankruptcy
protection later this month or in early January, reported operating
revenues
of $1.838 billion for the period, down from $2.82 billion the previous
year,
according to unaudited figures that the Atlanta-based company filed
with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
International
id='10'>Bereaved
Families of Asbestos Victims to Receive 3M Yen
The government and
the ruling
parties of Japan have agreed to provide a total of 3 million yen as
condolence
money and funeral fees to those who lost family members to
asbestos-linked diseases,
200,000 yen more than the government’s initial proposal, the
Kyoto News
reported yesterday. The agreed plan to support the bereaved families,
who are
excluded from industrial accident insurance, will be revealed in a
meeting of
a task force of the ruling Liberal Democratic and New Komeito parties
today.
id='11'>Nicosia
Water Board ‘Flirting with Bankruptcy’
The Nicosia
(Cyprus) Water
Board yesterday asked the Interior Committee of the House of
Representatives
for an increase of 10 percent on water charges, the Cyprus Mail
reported
today. The district officer of Nicosia, Argyris Papanastasiou, told
the committee
that the Water Board has been flirting with bankruptcy since 1993. The
board
said that it is not in a position to cover the money it must pay to
the government
and at the same time fund its own develop programs. Deputies of the
House Committee
responded by saying that a 10 percent rise is excessive and suggested
that the
board instead put its own house in order rather than penalize
consumers for
mistakes that occurred in the past.