By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer on Apr 15, 2011, at 2:28 AM Updated on 4/15/11 at 5:33 AM
Fifteen months after Arrow Trucking Co. filed its Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation petition, former employees continue to file wage claims against Arrow's bankruptcy estate, court officials said Thursday.
Arrow bankruptcy trustee Patrick J. Malloy III said about 700 wage claims have been filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in Tulsa.
"Employee claims keep trickling in," Malloy said. "They tapered off for a while, but a couple came in last week."
The continued filing of employee wage claims is holding up a second distribution of assets to former employees of the Tulsa-based trucking company, the trustee said.
Malloy said he doubts a second distribution to employees will be scheduled in the next 60 days because wage claims continue to be filed in the case.
In addition, the trustee's lawsuits against former Arrow owner and Chairman Carol Pielsticker Bump and Arrow's former lender, Transportation Alliance Bank, are the two major issues left to be resolved in the case, Malloy said.
"If we resolved TAB or Carol (Pielsticker Bump), I would feel much better about a distribution," Malloy said. "It's impossible to tell when the employee claims will stop being filed. I just can't understand why people continue to file claims at this late date."
In December, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dana L. Rasure approved an interim distribution of $1.97 million to 564 former Arrow employees who filed wage and employment law violation claims against the estate.
The employee claims against Arrow's bankruptcy estate include back wages and claims arising from Arrow's violation of the federal WARN Act.
The Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires companies employing more than 100 people to give each employee at least 60 days' written notice of a plant closing and the termination of their employment.
Failure to provide the notice can make employers liable for 60 days of wages per employee, the law says.
In the distribution to former employees in December, the workers received about two-thirds of their wage and WARN Act claims.
Malloy said in December he would hold back about $1.5 million in bankruptcy estate assets to cover future employee claims that could be filed in the case.
Former employees could receive a maximum of $10,950 allowed in priority wage claims for unpaid wages plus WARN Act damages, court officials said.
Malloy has objected to dozens of employee claims.
His objections are based on the claims exceeding the statutory limitation of $10,950 or that the wage claims cannot be supported by Arrow company records, Malloy said.
The trustee's lawsuit against TAB seeks to reclaim arbitrary transfers of money from Arrow to TAB in the 90 days before Arrow's bankruptcy filing on Jan. 8, 2010.
Malloy's lawsuit against Bump alleges the former owner and chairman received $4.4 million in fraudulent transfers for her own use in the four years leading up to Arrow's bankruptcy.
Malloy estimates Arrow's assets at $8.55 million and liabilities of $98.97 million.
D.R. Stewart 918-581-8451
don.stewart@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Wage claims against Arrow still coming
Transportation
As automakers race to make cheaper electric cars with greater battery range, General Motors is working on one that can go 200 miles per charge at a cost of about $30,000, a top company executive said Monday.
BNSF Railway Co. announced Monday it is spending $125 million to expand and improve its system in Oklahoma. Projects will include a new bypass connection at the Cherokee rail yard in west Tulsa and extending a siding area on the carrier's tracks near Mannford.
