ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 5, 1996 TAG: 9603050021
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 7, 1996.
A story in Tuesday's Business section contained incorrect information
about how much money Valley Wheel and Parts Inc. must pay as a result of
a construction accident for which the company was found liable. Although
a jury awarded two men injured in the accident $1.75 million, Valley
Wheel reduced its obligation to $275,000 by filing in 1993 to reorganize
under bankruptcy protection. The money will be paid to the employer's
workers' compensation insurance company.
Valley Wheel and Parts in Roanoke will change its name to Truck City Parts to reflect its takeover last week by Bluefield, W.Va.-based Truck City Parts Inc.
All of the local company's 20 employees will keep their jobs.
The sale comes, coincidentally, as Valley Wheel's former owner is about to finish paying a large court judgment that landed the company in bankruptcy court about two years ago, his bankruptcy attorney said.
The 1993 lawsuit resulted from a construction accident in which two men were injured. A hydraulic hose purchased at Valley Wheel and Parts sprang a leak, causing the bucket of a front-end loader to fall as the men walked beneath it.
Valley Wheel, 826 Shenandoah Ave., continued operating but entered bankruptcy proceedings to reorganize its finances after the men - Parker Hipper and Millard Williams - were awarded $1.5 million and $250,000.
A bankruptcy judge in December 1993 approved an installment plan under which the corporation pays Hipper and Williams in full this month. Other creditors are to be paid before December 1998.
Sonny Kingery, Valley Wheel's former owner, said Monday he didn't need the money from the sale of his business to meet those bankruptcy-related obligations, because the business can once again support its debts. He said he sold the 21-year-old company because he received an attractive price and a promise that his son, Maurice, 31, will manage the store. Also, Kingery said he wants to devote more time to a novelty imprinting business of which he is part owner.
Bill Cole, president of Truck City Parts, has been trying to buy Valley Wheel for six or seven years, Kingery said. Cole said he is the largest independent truck part supplier based in West Virginia and wants to do business in Valley Wheel's territory, which is the greater Shenandoah Valley area.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB