APPLETON (WLUK) – A state appeals court rejected an attempt by members of the Appvion Employee Stock Ownership Plan to recover damages after a bankruptcy filing. Meanwhile, another related lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial next year.
Members of ESOP, about 90% of the employees, lost all value in their accounts when Appvion – formerly Appleton Papers – and its parent company, Paperweight Development Corp., filed for bankruptcy in October 2017.
The ESOP filed suit, claiming that PricewaterhouseCoopers – which audited the financial statements of Appvion and PDC from 2001 to 2014 – was negligent for failing to uncover fraud, and misrepresenting the company’s value. A circuit court ruled because PricewaterhouseCoopers was not the ESOP’s auditor, it was not reasonably foreseeable that the ESOP would have relied on PricewaterhouseCoopers’ audit opinions to fairly state the value of Appvion’s stock…