GE lawyers have filed a motion asking a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Georgia to remove the case from Judge John S. Dalis' court.

About 300 King Mill employees lost their jobs, medical insurance and retirement money without notice when GE Capital foreclosed on the mill's parent company, Spartan International Inc., in May. The employees filed the bankruptcy petition in an effort to continue their medical coverage for two months because they were not given the 60-day notice of the closing as required by law.

GE succeeded in getting South Carolina District Court Judge Margaret B. Seymour to appoint a receiver to start selling off Spartan's assets and giving the money to GE to pay Spartan's $35 million debt. When the case went before Judge Dalis, who appointed an interim trustee to hear the employees' claims, Judge Seymour in Spartanburg found the employees in contempt and ordered them to withdraw the petition.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals met in Baltimore on Aug. 2 to hear the case and ruled in favor of the employees Aug. 16, putting the case back in bankruptcy court.

Attorneys for the employees contend GE Capital and the receiver, Peter L. Tourtellot, have already taken actions in bankruptcy court ''to thwart the orderly process of the bankruptcy proceedings.''

''... The filing of this second motion is merely another effort by GE Capital in this continued 'forum shopping' and to remove this case from the bankruptcy court,'' the employees' attorneys state in their response to GE Capital's latest motion.

In all, about 1,200 people abruptly lost their jobs when Spartan closed five plants in Georgia and South Carolina.

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylviaco@augustachronicle.com.