Running Lenny/SID
 2.6.25-2-686 #1 SMP Fri Jul 18 17:46:56 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
   mail:~# uptime
 15:32:14 up 25 days, 21:21,  1 user,  load average: 0.37, 0.38, 0.29


mail:~# aptitude safe-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  openhpid{u}
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libpam-modules libpam-runtime libpam0g openssh-client openssh-server proftpd proftpd-basic proftpd-mod-ldap proftpd-mod-mysql
  proftpd-mod-pgsql ssh
11 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/3161kB of archives. After unpacking 401kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
Writing extended state information... Done
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 86745 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing openhpid ...
Stopping openhpid: /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d: line 437: 27978 Terminated              "${INITDPREFIX}${INITSCRIPTID}" "${saction}" "$@"
invoke-rc.d: initscript openhpid, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing openhpid (--remove):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 143
Starting openhpid: success.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 openhpid
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done

Manual removal;

mail:~# dpkg -r openhpid
(Reading database ... 86745 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing openhpid ...
Stopping openhpid: /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d: line 437: 28081 Terminated              "${INITDPREFIX}${INITSCRIPTID}" "${saction}" "$@"
invoke-rc.d: initscript openhpid, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing openhpid (--remove):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 143
Starting openhpid: success.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 openhpid

This all started this past weekend when I did an update to the server...