Association of Former Pan Am Employees Defeats PBGC in Decision by 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 2, 2001 The President of AFPAE Inc.; Richard A. Brooks announced today that the Second US Court of Appeals took just 40 days to deny the PBGC's appeal of Federal Judge Loretta Preska's third decision in favor of the Association of Former Pan Am Employees, allowing them to bring suit against the PBGC PBGC See: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation as the Trustee of the late Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal international airline of the United States from the 1930s until its collapse in 1991. Founded as a seaplane service out of Key West, Florida, the airline became a major company credited with many five pension plans. The decision stated that upon due consideration, it is hereby ordered that this appeal be dismissed for lack of appellate jurisdiction APPELLATE JURISDICTION. The jurisdiction which a superior court has to bear appeals of causes which have been tried in inferior courts. It differs from original jurisdiction, which is the power to entertain suits instituted in the first in stance. Vide Jurisdiction; Original jurisdiction. . It also stated that the case be remanded back to the Circuit Court for Discovery and trial. "This has been a long time coming," stated Mr. Brooks. "AFPAE has been fighting this battle for our rightful pensions for over 10 years now. When we started this battle way back in 1991 after Pan Am went out of business, we went to 13 law firms looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. the right lawyer to handle this case. Almost every firm we went to gave us no chance of winning. Our lawyer, Harvey M. Katz of Berlack, Israel & Liberman, and the 85,000 former Pan Am and National employees, have fought tooth and nail against the bureaucracy of the PBGC, and we now have them backed into a corner that they cannot get out of." "Our strategy has been simple," said Brooks. "The PBGC cannot be the Trustee of our pension plans, and also be the insurer! That is an inherent conflict of interest. A fiduciary must act in the sole interest of the plan participants Plan participants Employees or other beneficiaries who are eligible to receive benefits from a company's employee benefit plan. . An insurance company (and the PBGC) are only interested in their bottom line." Mr. Brooks stated, "that they have been getting away with this stuff for over 26 years. The only thing that the PBGC did wrong this time, is that they picked on the wrong group of employees. I think that the last topic of conversation in the hollowed halls of the PBGC right now is Pan Am!" "AFPAE has been forced to spend over $800,000, just to get our 'day in court'" said Mr. Brooks. "Their strategy has been from day one, to force us to spend more money than we could raise, so we would have to walk away because we could not pay our legal fees. Thanks to the Transport Workers Union of America Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. , and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Teamsters large, powerful union of U. S. truckers. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2703] See : Labor , and most of all our membership, we are still here fighting for our lives Fighting For Our Lives is a pamphlet published by CrimethInc., a U.S. based anarchist collective. According to the authors, this pamphlet "discusses, in simple language, what is anarchist in everyday life, and how those spheres of cooperation can be expanded. ." AFPAE President Richard A. Brooks stated in closing, "that we will never give up our battle with the PBGC, even if it takes another ten years, and another $800,000. We will not back off." |
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