Bank of New York Mellon Corp. asked a judge to reject ChesapeakeEnergy Corp.'s bid for an emergency order allowing it to redeemmore than $1.3 billion in notes early without paying new interest,saving about $400 million.

Investors holding $250 million in debt echoed the bank's requestas they sought to intervene. A hearing is set for later today inthe suit, in which Chesapeake seeks a ruling that it can still meeta March 15 deadline to redeem the 6.775 percent notes at par, andnot the higher “make whole” price.

“Chesapeake, having missed the deadline to redeem the notes atpar, now demands an advisory opinion from the court, seeking toguarantee the idiosyncratic treatment of a future redemption noticewhich has not yet been made,” BNY Mellon, the indenture trustee forthe notes, said in a filing today in Manhattan federal courtopposing the request.