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The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in Czyzewski v. Jevic Holding Corporation, a case that could upend the common practice that ranks lenders, employees and other creditors in order of priority as they try to recover their money when a company files for bankruptcy, the New York Times reported. The case has attracted wide attention from academics, workers’ groups and state tax authorities. Jevic Transportation Company, a New Jersey trucking company, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, two years after a $77.4 million leveraged buyout by the private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, which former employees say heaped too much debt on its books. The bankruptcy put 1,785 drivers and staff members out of work, but they sued for wages under a federal law and state law that requires employers to give 60 days’ notice before mass layoffs. The drivers figured the company owed them approximately $8 million in pay because they were not warned that their jobs were ending. At the same time, the drivers and other creditors filed suit against Sun Capital and Jevic’s main lender, the CIT Group, saying that their buyout had fraudulently pushed Jevic into bankruptcy. Sun and CIT settled with the other unsecured creditors in their fraud case. In exchange for a $3.7 million payment to them, including the lawyers on the case, the creditors agreed to abandon their claim. The drivers were not part of that settlement and were left with nothing. If the Supreme Court sides with Jevic and its owner and chief lender, the decision could upend bankruptcy law by altering the rights and expectations of these various groups. Read more.

ABI’s Bill Rochelle will be covering the oral argument in Jevic today and will provide a video recap on ABI’s social media networks (Twitter, Facebook and Linked In) and a summary in the Rochelle Daily Wire. For more on the Jevic, please click here.