Ohio:
WASHINGTON - A bankruptcy judge Wednesday approved the request by a Connecticut hedge fund for a Chapter 11 trustee to take control of a St. Louis-area operator of Wendy’s fast-food restaurants.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Schermer in St. Louis signed off on SPCP Group LLC’s request for a trustee to run WenAmerica LLC, which owns more than 50 shuttered Wendy’s restaurants. Charles Riske was appointed as the trustee Wednesday, according to court papers. The appointment requires bankruptcy court approval.
Schermer also ensured that the restaurants will stay closed for the time being by denying SPCP’s request to force parent Wendy’s International Inc. to continue supplying the franchisee. The parent company, the nation’s third-largest hamburger chain, is based in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus.
The judge’s ruling sets up an Oct. 23 showdown between the hedge fund and Wendy’s in bankruptcy court, WenAmerica lawyer Ashley Lynn Narsutis said.SPCP, along with two other creditors, pushed WenAmerica LLC into Chapter 11 on Friday in St. Louis. WenAmerica owes the hedge fund about $3.1 million on a $5 million loan that SPCP purchased in May from Finova Capital Corp.
However, Wendy’s said it officially terminated its franchise agreement with WenAmerica on Sept. 1, before the involuntary bankruptcy filing. Therefore, it’s not required to continue supplying burgers and buns to the franchise under the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay provision, as SPCP has argued.
SPCP wants WenAmerica’s 29 remaining restaurants to reopen so they can be sold as an “ongoing business,” court papers said.
Unemployed and angry on September 17th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
I am a employee effected by this poor management ownership. While these 2 New York lawyers drove around in their new vehicles and lavish homes dodging sales taxes, we devoted employee’s of theirs had no idea that we would be out of jobs. Not to mention not getting our checks for the last 2 weeks of work. They had opportunity after opportunity to sell and do things the right way, but daddy Ron wanted more bux for his wallet. Do we think he cares about us the unemployed? Hell no if he did care he would have resolved things the right way. How can you call yourself a business man and not pay taxes? The Saverin’s are a joke to society. I guess the real question here is why did Wendy’s International allow this to go on for so long? They knew they weren’t paying their bills, heck they owed them major dollars for royalties. While they sat back and allowed clowns to run one of their franchises we now have more than 1,000 employee’s our of work and they don’t seem to care. If they did they would reopen the restaurants and let us go back to work.