Yellow’s Loss in Pension Battle Tees Up New Phase of Bankruptcy

Yellow Corp.'s failure to persuade a judge to throw out billions in pension liabilities answered the biggest question hovering over its bankruptcy and means the bankrupt trucker must now finagle a creditor repayment plan that encompasses those debts.

Judge Craig T. Goldblatt of the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Sept. 13 rejected Yellow’s challenges to the regulatory power of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The company had disputed the agency’s authority in hopes of getting its pension liability slashed or eliminated.

The decision brought clarity to what Yellow and its creditors had said was the bankruptcy’s ...