The United Kingdom Supreme Court says that Nortel and Lehman Brothers pension plan members should be treated the same as other unsecured creditors of the bankrupt companies.
“There seems no particular sense in the rights of the pension scheme trustees to receive a sum which the legislature considers they should be entitled to receive having any greater or any lesser priority than the rights of any other unsecured creditor,” judge David Neuberger wrote in his ruling.
That decision reverses rulings by the High Court and the Court of Appeal, which gave pensioners the right to be paid ahead of other creditors.
The Pensions Regulator was seeking £2.1 billion ($3.3 billion) from Nortel and £125 million ($197.4 million) from Lehman to cover the deficits in both U.K.-based plans.
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