Troubling news has arisen from the United Furniture bankruptcy as it appears some innocent trucking companies are now unable to retrieve their equipment. Daily Journal reports that according to Atkins Trucking and Booneville attorney Casey Lott, not all of the returned trailers belonged to United Furniture or Wells Fargo Bank.
When United Furniture shut down, financier Wells Fargo hired security to lock up the company’s properties, equipment, and trailers. This is preventing companies that are not involved with the bankruptcy from recovering their trailers.
Some smaller companies like Atkins Trucking are now in a tight spot as they need those trailers to operate. Lott believes that any furniture belonging to the bank should be unloaded from the trailers and put back inside the United Furniture warehouses.
That would leave the owners of the trailers free to take back their equipment and be able to operate. The lawsuit is not looking for money, but only the release of the trailers.
Lott hopes to have the case certified into a class action so the owners of other trailers can reclaim them. This is one of many lawsuits filed against United Furniture since the shut down.
A Texas company sued United for a 22-ton load of copper wire that was supposed to be delivered the day the company shut down. The load has been impounded since the bankruptcy.
Several other lawsuits allege that the company violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) when it fired all its employees without notice. The WARN Act requires companies with more than 100 employees to give 60 days advance written notice before layoffs or shutting down.
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