Entergy New Orleans unsecured creditors committee objects to class certification request

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, April 19 - Entergy New Orleans, Inc.'s official committee of unsecured creditors objected to a motion to certify two classes in the company's Chapter 11 case for customers who have claims for losses in connection with overcharges for electricity, according to a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The parties requesting the class certification include C.S. Gordon, Jr., on behalf of New Zion Baptist Church; J. Michael Malec, Darryl Malek-Wiley, Willie Webb, Jr. and Maison St. Charles, LLC, or the Gordon plaintiffs; and Thomas P. Lowenburg, Martin Adamo, Vern K. Baxter, Philip D. Carter, Bernard Gordon, Leonard Levine, Ivory S. Madison, Donetta Dunn Miller and Quality Inn Maison St. Charles, or the Lowenburg plaintiffs.

According to the objection, the committee believes the Gordon and Lowenburg claims are pre-bankruptcy unsecured claims, but the motion is designed so these claims to be treated differently than other pre-bankruptcy unsecured claims.

In addition, the committee said it agreed with the points made in Entergy New Orleans' March 17 motion to dismiss the class certification request.

According to the company's motion, the request for certification of classes is not associated with any pending adversary proceeding or contested matter.

In addition, Entergy New Orleans said the plaintiffs had refused to continue the March 29 hearing on the certification request for longer than a week, leaving the company with no opportunity to conduct class-related discovery "in a complex matter that has been pending for seven years."

If the court does not decide to dismiss the motion, the company requested that the hearing be postponed indefinitely.

In addition, Entergy and the committee said the bar date for filing a proof of claim was April 19, and as of March 17, neither group had filed a proof of claim.

Entergy New Orleans provides electric and natural gas service to customers in New Orleans and is the smallest of Entergy Corp.'s five utility companies. It filed for Chapter 11 on Sept. 23. Its case number is 05-17697.

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