Bondholders Suing Keating May Face New Delay : * Trial: Accounting firms ask judge to postpone Arizona federal case against him.

Bondholders who lost more than $250 million in the 1989 collapse of Charles H. Keating Jr.’s financial empire may face another delay in the start of the civil trial on their lawsuits against Keating and those who helped his American Continental Corp.

Two major accounting firms named in the suit have asked U.S. District Judge Richard M. Bilby in Tucson, Ariz., to delay the March 2 trial date until the conclusion of Keating’s criminal trial in Los Angeles federal court on conspiracy, bank fraud and racketeering charges.

Arthur Young & Co.--now called Ernst & Young--and Arthur Andersen & Co. say the 77-count federal indictment issued last month in Los Angeles includes allegations that auditors were misled by American Continental officers.

The possibility that the accounting firms could be cleared by “convincing evidence” in the criminal trial is “real,” the Andersen firm said in court papers filed Tuesday.

Bondholders, most of them elderly customers of the company’s main subsidiary, Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan, have been fighting to get their case to trial because so many of them are destitute and infirm.

“At some point, people’s lives and the impact the delay has on them should be taken into account,” said Ronald Rus of Orange, an attorney for the bondholders. “People are literally holding on, knowing that their trial will be held this spring.”

Bilby will hear arguments on the request Feb. 4.

Keating, who has been convicted of state securities fraud in California, was indicted last month by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. Last week, he was indicted on bankruptcy fraud charges by a federal grand jury in Phoenix.

Lincoln’s collapse is the nation’s biggest thrift failure, costing taxpayers $2.6 billion.