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Sunday, August 16, 2009
Courts - Visteon judge to rule on cutting retiree benefits: Indiana retirees impacted
Randall Chase of the AP had this story Friday. Some quotes:
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware bankruptcy judge is weighing whether auto parts supplier Visteon Corp. can terminate retiree health care and life insurance benefits for thousands of current and former workers.After a two-day hearing, Judge Christopher Sontchi told attorneys Friday he would consider the evidence and arguments. He gave no indication when he would rule.
"I feel that the record is sufficiently complex and the law is sufficiently complex to require the court to thoroughly review the record," said Sontchi, whose ruling could affect some 6,600 retirees and their families, and about 1,000 future retirees. * * *
About one-third of the retirees are not yet eligible for Medicare, federal health insurance. * * *
"It is, for some, a death sentence," said Susan Jennik, an attorney representing workers who retired from two Visteon plants in Indiana. "Retirees who are receiving cancer treatment or who have heart disease ... are now faced with the termination of lifesaving medical treatment which they will not be able to afford." * * *
The benefits termination would affect retirees from Visteon headquarters in Michigan, the Pennsylvania and Indiana plants, and another in Puerto Rico. The Indiana and Puerto Rico plants have closed; the one in Pennsylvania will shut down by the end of the year.
"I'm disappointed in the system," said Carolyn Spurlock, 59, who worked for 37 years at a Visteon plant in Connersville, Ind. "We don't know what's going to happen from day to day now."
Robert Stark, an attorney representing Visteon's creditors committee, said retirees are due "ample sympathy," but that, unlike the company's creditors, they do not have legally sustainable claims. "This is a legal question pure and simple," he said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 16, 2009 11:57 AM
Posted to Courts in general