Quigley eyes confirmation hearing March 16; court denies U.S. Trustee request to appoint examiner

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, Oct. 21 - Quigley Co. Inc. is targeting March 16 for its plan confirmation hearing, company counsel told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York at a status hearing Tuesday.

The date is part of a scheduling order that Quigley, a unit of Pfizer Inc., is preparing for submission to the court, attorney Michael Cook of Schulte Roth & Zabel said.

Also Tuesday, a motion of Quigley's U.S. Trustee to appoint an examiner to investigate whether the company's plan of reorganization has been formulated in good faith was denied.

Judge Stuart Bernstein said he hadn't been convinced that appointing an examiner at this point in the case was in the best interest of the estate, the creditors or equity holders.

"The issue is good faith, and discovery has been ongoing, and everyone is prepared to litigate that," Bernstein said, adding that he was confident a full airing of the good faith issue would be had at confirmation and that an examiner couldn't add to that process.

Quigley's process has been significantly delayed by controversy surrounding the case as both the ad hoc committee of tort victims and the office of the U.S. Trustee have asserted that the plan is unconfirmable due to fraudulent devices employed by Pfizer and Quigley such as voter manipulation.

Quigley was an operationally defunct entity prior to the petition, but was resurrected and subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection, the U.S. Trustee representative's Greg Zipes told the court.

Pfizer made a joint-defense agreement with Quigley in September 2003, a year before the bankruptcy, and failed to disclose it in the proposal, Zipes said.

Quigley, a refractories business, was acquired by Pfizer in 1968. The company exited the refractories business in 1992 when Minteq International Inc. purchased its core assets, the company asserts. But it retained present and future liabilities arising out of products it sold prior to the asset sale. It continued to manage the asbestos claims process and to recover insurance proceeds for asbestos claimants, the company says.

Of two groups of asbestos victims seeking claims from the company, one has settled with the company and approved the proposed plan and the other has not.

Quigley filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 3, 2004. Its Chapter 11 case number is 04-15739.

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