Pension plans claiming they were owed about $40 million from the bankruptcy of the Boston Herald have reached a settlement with the remnants of the newspaper company and with its former publisher, the Wall Street Journal reported. Terms of the agreement include allowing the New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund to have a $13 million claim, less than half of the $29 million claim originally sought, according to papers filed Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. In bankruptcy, a claim is a right to payment, whether it is eventually reduced or disputed. William Baldiga, a Brown Rudnick LLP lawyer representing the paper’s former owner HMH Media Inc. and related affiliates, said the pension plans’ claims, which are mostly unsecured in the settlement, will likely receive about 6 cents to 10 cents on the dollar of the allowed claims. That means the Teamsters’ claims are likely to receive about $1.3 million at most under the agreement. Two other pension plans are also part of the settlement. The proposed debt-repayment plan also calls for former Boston Herald publisher Patrick Purcell to waive various claims, including severance, in exchange for a release, or a grant of legal immunity. An independent director for HMH Media has reviewed the Purcell claims “and assessed whether Mr. Purcell might be liable” to the reorganized businesses, Thursday’s court filing said. That director recommended that the agreement resolving the claims of Purcell and the pension plans be approved.
