Five umpires' long battle to get back pay from Major League Baseball is over.

The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling, largely ending nearly 5½ years of litigation resulting from the resignation by 22 umpires late in the 1999 season.

Gary Darling, Butler native Bill Hohn, Larry Poncino, Larry Vanover and Joe West will receive back pay for September 1999 and the 2000 and 2001 seasons. The five were rehired as part of a partial settlement of their suit in February 2002, a deal that left the issue of back pay to be decided by the courts.

Six of the other umpires have been rehired by baseball. Bruce Dreckman, Sam Holbrook and Paul Nauert gave up their right to back pay when they were rehired in August 2002, and Bob Davidson, Tom Hallion and Ed Hickox will be brought back under an agreement reached last month in which they agreed to drop any claims.

In May 2001, arbitrator Alan Symonette ordered baseball to rehire Darling, Hohn, Poncino, Vanover and West, as well as Drew Coble, Greg Kosc, Frank Pulli and Terry Tata. Coble, Kosc, Pulli and Tata were allowed to retire with back pay.

The arbitrator's decision largely was upheld in December 2002 by a U.S. district judge in Philadelphia, Harvey Bartle III. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia affirmed Bartle's decision by a 2-1 vote in February.

December's deal gives severance pay to Jim Evans, Dale Ford, Eric Gregg, Mark Johnson, Ken Kaiser and Larry McCoy.

The only remaining suit was filed by Richie Phillips, head of the Major League Umpires Association. Umpires replaced the MLUA with a new union, the World Umpires Association, in late 1999.