The Denver Post reports, “A bankruptcy court judge in Maryland has approved an emergency motion by a Papa John’s Pizza franchise to pay wages owed to about 1,200 employees.”
“PJCOMN Acquisition, which owns 72 Papa John’s Pizza restaurant in Colorado and Minnesota, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday. The company’s attorney, Robert Zarco, said PJCOMN is not responsible for the wage holdup. Zarco said an account to pay the employees was frozen by a court-appointed receiver requested by GE Capital after PJCOMN defaulted on a loan to purchase the franchise at what he called ‘an over-inflated price.'”
“Today’s ruling means employees will be paid a total of $290,531.05 for Sept. 12-18 that should have been distributed this week, a similar amount for the Sept. 19-25 period to be paid Tuesday and $133,530.56 for outstanding checks not yet deposited. ‘We do not anticipate there will be any further problems,” Zarco said. “It will be business as usual for employees and customers.'”