Beatty Out On Medical Leave, Substitute Made Permanent

What was originally to be a temporary switch in judges presiding over Delta Air Line's Chapter 11 bankruptcy trial has been made permanent, as Judge Adlai S. Hardin has been selected to preside over two trials formerly handled by Judge Prudence Carter Beatty.

Beatty's cases -- one involving New York's St. Vincent's Hospital, and the Delta bankruptcy -- had been temporarily reassigned earlier this week after Beatty went on leave for medical reasons, according a statement by the US Bankruptcy Court in New York.

Beatty had presided over Delta's bankruptcy filing since the airline filed for Chapter 11 on September 14 of last year. Throughout the hearings, Aero-News has reported on several retorts Beatty made to participants in the bankruptcy case -- most, but not all, of which were directed against executives with the airline.

"I say you're throwing darts at the pilots because they're smaller than you are and you think you can stomp on them. That may or may not be true," Beatty told Delta attorney Jack Gallagher during a November 17 hearing on pilot concessions. "I don't think this matter will be resolved until I hear what the pilots have to say and what you have to say."

Beatty also took the airline to task for failing to hedge what profits the airline took in over the past several years towards avoiding bankruptcy, opting instead to spend $2.4 billion to buy back its shares from stockholders.

"It is a question of if you had that money rather than had spent it that way, you might not be in the position you are in," Judge Beatty told Delta representatives November 30, adding it may have been a case of the company "buying something worth nothing to me in order to make stock market price look good" to Wall Street.

With Beatty dropped from the case -- the feisty judge had reportedly been slowed over the past several months due to sciatica and two knee replacements -- Hardin will have to assume a case known as much for Beatty's sharp critiques as for the implications to the #4 domestic airline.

From the administrative side, however, that shouldn't be too difficult, according to those involved in the case. While the proceedings will likely slow initially, there should be little disruption over the long haul as the bankruptcy case involves several different and discrete issues and hearings, instead of one long trial.

"We anticipate a seamless transition," said Delta spokesman John Kennedy to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Hardin will referee a variety of legal issues and disputes in Delta's case, including
Delta's proposed reorganization plan to emerge from Chapter 11.

FMI: www.delta.com