Quigley unsecured creditors' committee, tort victims object to disclosure statement

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Sept. 16 - Quigley Co., Inc.'s disclosure statement for its plan of reorganization drew objection from the official committee of unsecured creditors and the ad hoc committee of tort victims, according to Thursday filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The creditors committee said negotiations between it, the company and the representative for future claimants are ongoing, and therefore the disclosure statement cannot contain full and adequate information.

The tort committee said it objects to the disclosure statement's attempts to take away voting rights.

"Taking another step in its carefully orchestrated scheme to shield its non-debtor parent company from substantial exposure, Quigley now proposes to leverage its still largely unexplained pre-petition settlements (believed to have been entered into principally with "low value" claimants) to eviscerate the voting rights of those individuals most seriously harmed by its (and possibly Pfizer's) products," the tort committee's objection said.

"Having apparently bought enough "low value" claims to satisfy [the bankruptcy code's] "one-half in number" approval requirement, Quigley now proposes to simply ignore the additional, clear and unequivocal requirement that 'two-thirds in amount' must accept the plan."

According to the objection, Quigley is proposing to treat all asbestos claimants exactly the same for voting purposes, regardless of disease type and irrespective of any product identification issues.

"On top of this, Quigley appears to be using an artificially impaired class to effectively gerrymander the vote in an attempt to ensure confirmation," according to the objection.

A hearing on approval of the disclosure statement is scheduled for Sept. 28.

Quigley, a unit of Pfizer Inc., filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 3, 2004. Its Chapter 11 case number is 04-15739.

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