UAL retired pilots ask court to allow some claims for voting in connection with plan vote recount request

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Jan. 12 - UAL Corp.'s Retired Pilots Benefit Protection Association asked the bankruptcy court to temporarily allow some of its claims for purposes of voting on the company's plan of reorganization in connection with the retired pilots' request that the "other secured claims" plan votes be recounted.

According to the motion filed Thursday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, there is a dispute between the company and the association regarding the amount of claims for retired pilots applicable to their lost non-qualified pension payments. United has challenged, and not counted, the ballots of retired pilots who increased their claim amounts.

The retired pilots said they want to temporarily allow only the claims for lost non-qualified pension benefits in the amounts United inserted on the ballots from its books and records.

The association said that temporarily allowing the claims will remove any further impediment to counting the retired pilots' individual votes for numerosity purposes, regardless of the amount of claims for lost benefits, and that it will allow the retired pilots to vote the amount of their claims to which there is no dispute and for the lost benefits in the amount set forth by United on the ballots.

On Tuesday, the retired pilots asked the court to order United to recount the "other secured claims" plan votes, to count the votes of retired pilots that were improperly disqualified and to publish an amended voting report before the plan confirmation hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

The court now plans to rule on both motions on Tuesday.

According to the recount motion, the company failed to count the votes of more than 1,500 retired pilots.

The association contended that, regardless of any dispute, the company should have at least counted the claim amount votes at the amounts United listed on the ballots from its books and records, rather than not count any amount at all.

UAL, the Chicago-based parent of United Airlines, filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 9, 2002. Its Chapter 11 case number is 02-48191.

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