Entergy New Orleans asks court to continue class certification hearing to complete discovery process

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, April 24 - Entergy New Orleans, Inc. asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana to continue the hearing on 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 Friday court filing.

The company wants to continue the hearing until after Sept. 1 if its motion to dismiss the class certification request is denied at the Wednesday hearing.

If the motion to dismiss is granted, the continuance would not be necessary.

Entergy New Orleans said it cannot defend against the class certification motion without first having an adequate opportunity to conduct discovery of the class representatives.

The company said this involves the scheduling of the depositions of each and every of 14 putative class representatives, which could not be concluded by the end of May.

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.

Entergy New Orleans provides electric and natural gas service to customers in New Orleans. It filed for Chapter 11 on Sept. 23, 2005. Its case number is 05-17697.

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