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Please Redistribute

November 17, 2004

Nelson Phelps, President and Executive Director

ASSOCIATION OF U S WEST RETIREES

and

AUSWR Board Members

and

General membership

This is an update to my October 1, 2004, email reporting the Complaint filed to legally challenge Qwest's wholesale denial of our request for a copy of 1) the pension plan "investment policy guidelines"; and 2) the pension plan and health care plan "investment trust proxy voting policy." We believe those requested documents should have been delivered to Mr. Phelps or his legal counsel and that Qwest deliberately refused to comply with ERISA document disclosure requirements.

I have attached hereto your copy of the "Answer" filed by the outside counsel hired by Qwest to oppose our legal challenge under the federal law ERISA. The attached Answer was filed on November 10, 2004, in Denver Federal Court, Phelps v. Qwest Employee Benefits Committee, Civil Action No. 04-B-2042 (OES). The case is assigned to Chief Judge Babcock, the same federal judge handling the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case filed against the Department of Labor concerning the "investigation" about the Qwest Pension Plan. The Phelps case has been assigned Magistrate Judge Edward Schlatter, who is also assigned to the FOIA case.

In the pending Phelps case, we are asking the federal court to compel Qwest to produce the requested information and to pay a penalty of $110 per day for each day the requested documents have been withheld. Already, the combined penalties exceed $40,000.00, and the amount continues to accrue each passing day.

The Answer is a general denial. No surprise here. You can compare the numbered paragraphs in the attached Answer with the corresponding paragraph in the Complaint.

Now, the case will proceed to a scheduling conference where we will meet with the Magistrate Judge for the purpose of setting dates on depositions and the parameters of formal discovery requests, such as interrogatories and document requests. To date, the conference has not be scheduled.

Curtis

Curtis L. Kennedy
Attorney-at-law
8405 E. Princeton Ave.
Denver, CO 80237-1741
Tele: 303-770-0440
Fax: 303-843-0360
CurtisLKennedy@aol.com

Attachment (Phelps v. Qwest Answer filed by Qwest - 8 pages)

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