Major League Baseball was ordered by a federal judge to give five umpires $3.1 million to cover back pay, interest and medical costs as part of a lawsuit stemming from their failed mass resignation in 1999. After the Supreme Court declined in January 2005 to hear an appeal of a lower-court ruling, baseball tried last November to give Gary Darling, Bill Hohn, Larry Poncino, Larry Vanover and Joe West more than $1.9 million to cover salary, bonuses and medical costs for September 1999 and the 2000 and 2001 seasons, with management taking a $122,000 credit for the umpires' estimated earnings during that time. But the umpires instructed their banks to refuse the payments, and they went back to court.