A U.S. bankruptcy judge said he made a mistake in asserting Yellow Corp. had defaulted on its pension obligations ahead of the trucking company’s 2023 liquidation and bankruptcy.
The timing of Yellow’s default is crucial to the firm’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, as it could impact how much the former less-than-truckload (LTL) company owes for withdrawing from an employee pension.
Judge Craig Goldblatt said during a Monday morning hearing that if he reverses a initial September ruling that held Yellow liable for $6.5 billion in debt claims made by its pension funds, he would likely call for a new trial to determine the precise date that Yellow defaulted on the obligations.
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Yellow’s largest shareholder, private equity firm MFN Partners, had argued against the original ruling. The ruling ensured that the company would have very little cash left for shareholders if they had to pay a pension penalty. At the time, Goldblatt did not set a payment amount, or calculate how much is allocated to each of the 11 individual pension plans that had claims.
The estate’s shareholders got a jolt from Goldblatt’s admission. Yellow shares jumped from 45 cents per share Monday morning to $1.02 per share as of Tuesday afternoon. On Sept. 12, the day Goldblatt’s initial ruling was announced, stock had plummeted 88 percent to 60 cents.
Had Goldblatt initially ruled in favor of Yellow, the company says it would have been able to pay general unsecured creditors in full.
Pension officials argued that the mistake doesn’t matter and urged Goldblatt not to change his ruling. They also pointed out that Yellow didn’t dispute that it had defaulted until after Goldblatt’s ruling came out. According to the pension firms, Goldblatt should reject Yellow’s request to reconsider the decision since the company waited so long.
Yellow and MFN argued that Goldblatt’s ruling improperly inflated the company’s pension liability. The parties said that the ruling determined that $41.1 billion in Covid-era funds received by pension funds under the American Rescue Plan Act shouldn’t be used to calculate a plan’s unfunded vested benefits.
Goldblatt ordered both sides to submit written arguments on the issue, saying he wouldn’t provide a decision until the timing of the default was determined.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which regulates retirement funds of private sector workers, was set to calculate the penalty Yellow would have pay for withdrawing from the retirement plans.
PBGC had argued to that other companies with traditional pension plans would be more enticed to cancel their retirement benefits if Yellow won, as shareholders wouldn’t be forced to pay a weighty penalty.
The Monday bankruptcy court hearing likely further delays a final Chapter 11 plan Yellow put before the court earlier this month.
Yellow said in that filing that the plan included payments to remaining secured creditors and to former employees who are still due paid time off and commission claims. Those claims are projected to total between $75 million and $100 million.
The firm is in the process of selling off its remaining real estate assets. In August, the bankruptcy court permitted Yellow to retain real estate services provider CBRE so it could sell 46 owned and 70 leased locations.
That sale process began Oct. 1, with nonbinding indicators of interest allowed through Oct. 18. From there, binding bids from qualified entities will then be accepted, although a deadline has yet to be set.
The process is expected to close as early as January.
Earlier this year, Yellow already liquidated 130 owned terminals for $1.88 billion and 23 leased properties for $92 million in separate auctions, and sold off 60,000 trucks, trailers and equipment for roughly $114 million.
On Monday, the court also heard summary judgment motions regarding Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act claims against Yellow’s estate. In a class-action lawsuit going back to last August, nearly 25,000 former employees say they weren’t notified of their layoff with advance notice, as required by state laws.
Combined, the class-action claims total $244 million. Goldblatt deferred a ruling until the scheduled Dec. 9 trial date.
