Big Rig Trailers: the receiver settles the US lenders' trailer claims

Walmart Canada Corp. signed a master equipment lease with Big Rig Trailers & Leasing Inc. on November 28, 2022 for 115 trailers, and it has gone on paying for them through more than two years of receivership: the receiver's statement of receipts and disbursements to September 15, 2026 carries $3,661,009 of receipts under the heading "Walmart Lease Proceeds" and a balance of $3,338,419 still held against them, per the Ninth Report of the Receiver, Sept. 15, 2026, App. 4. By August 2025 Walmart had told the receiver it no longer needed the trailers, whose leases were set to run to October 2027 for the 15 refrigerated units and October 2029 for the 100 dry vans, per the Eighth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 21, 2025, paras. 43–44. It has kept them, and kept paying, per the Notice of Application, Sept. 15, 2026, Part 2, para. 19.

The money was held because the trailers were contested. Three US lenders say they financed 114 of the 115 for Big Rig's American affiliates. On September 15, 2026, Grant Thornton Limited, the receiver, filed its Ninth Report and an application returnable September 28 asking the Supreme Court of British Columbia to approve two linked agreements: a settlement dated September 10, 2026 that divides every disputed pool among the Canadian and US secured creditors, and an August 28, 2026 agreement ending the Walmart lease, per the Notice of Application (Approval of Receiver's Activities), Sept. 15, 2026, p. 1 and Part 1, para. 1. The receiver describes the priority dispute as "one of the last remaining issues in the receivership," per the Notice of Application, Sept. 15, 2026, Part 3, para. 9(f).

A yard in Woodstock

The three companies (Big Rig Trailers & Leasing Inc., Big Rig Tires & Services Inc. and Big Rig Partz Inc.) sold and leased new and used semi-trucks and trailers, sold tires and parts and serviced rigs from Abbotsford, Calgary, Edmonton and Brampton. BR Trailers' own website, the interim receiver noted, described it as one of the largest authorized Vanguard trailer dealers in Canada. The interim receiver understood the group to be managed by its ultimate parent, Kal Freight Inc. of California, per the Interim Receiver's Report, July 3, 2024, paras. 7–11. The receiver's application describes the debtors as wholly owned by a California resident who also owned Kal Freight and a set of affiliates running a substantially similar business in the United States. It says the companies defaulted to RBC from around February 2024, and that an RBC audit of the inventory found trailers missing, sold without the bank's consent, or moved to the United States, per the Notice of Application, Sept. 15, 2026, Part 2, paras. 6, 11. At commencement RBC was owed about $6.33 million and US$7.43 million, and Mitsubishi HC Capital Canada, Inc. about $11 million by BR Trailers (para. 4).

Justice Masuhara appointed Grant Thornton interim receiver on RBC's without-notice application on June 21, 2024 and receiver under s. 243 of the BIA on July 5, per the First Report of the Receiver, July 10, 2024, App. 1, Order of July 5, 2024, paras. 1–2. The first weeks were spent in a third-party yard at 1187 Welford Place, Woodstock, Ontario. On June 13, working as RBC's financial advisor, Grant Thornton had inspected 46 new refrigerated trailers there; of the 57 it inspected at two Ontario yards, 56 carried VIN plates matching trailers RBC had financed. It took possession on June 21 and confirmed the plates. When its agent came back on June 28 to move the trailers, the agent found only one of the 46 VINs, reported that the plates "showed clear signs of having been tampered with," and was escorted out by yard security while photographing them, per the Interim Receiver's Report, July 3, 2024, paras. 21–25. The police said a warrant would be needed (para. 26).

Under the receivership order the agent got back in on July 9 and checked the VINs stamped into the frames. On the receiver's account, only 2 of the 46 appeared to carry the manufacturer's original concealed VIN; on the rest the replacement numbers "appear to have been stamped by hand," per the First Report of the Receiver, July 10, 2024, paras. 12, 16. The report does not say who changed the plates.

Orders of July 10, August 19 and September 5, 2024 let the receiver take possession of 87 trailers in that yard. On September 19 the court declared 42 of them Big Rig's property and adjourned the application on 36 more so Kal Freight could support its claim to them and to six others, per the Ninth Report, Sept. 15, 2026, paras. 7–8. The receiver reported that Big Rig's own books showed those 42 contested trailers as bought from Kal Trailers & Leasing Inc. Then US lenders began to write: Daimler Truck Financial Services USA LLC claimed ten of the refrigerated trailers and 23 of the dry vans, and TBK Bank, SSB six dry vans, each saying it had financed the trailers for the Kal group and held US liens. None had registered against Big Rig in Ontario, British Columbia or Alberta, per the Seventh Report of the Receiver, Feb. 20, 2025, paras. 15, 22, 27, 29–32. The receiver proposed to auction the contested trailers and hold the proceeds in trust (para. 34). The court declared three Canadian-made units Big Rig's property on February 26, 2025 and approved a third auction, per the Ninth Report, Sept. 15, 2026, para. 11.

Across the border

Grant Thornton had meanwhile taken the case to the United States. It filed under Chapter 15 in the Central District of California on September 6, 2024, and Judge Wayne Johnson recognized the receivership as a foreign main proceeding on October 17. Kal Freight and its affiliates filed under Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas on December 5. Before they did, the receiver, as foreign representative, signed a plan support agreement in which the Kal debtors arranged US$2.5 million of third-party cash, the "Donor Payment," and a secured US$3.5 million note in its favour, per the Eighth Report, Aug. 21, 2025, paras. 15–19, App. 1 and App. 2, recital E. The same agreement recites that Big Rig owed its non-insider, largely Canadian creditors about $45,500,000, and more than $70,000,000 counting disputed insider claims (App. 2, recital H).

The Kal plan was confirmed on April 10, 2025 and its remaining assets passed to a liquidating trust. The receiver's July 28, 2025 settlement with that trust split the Donor Payment equally and shared the proceeds of the properties securing the note, which the receiver expected would likely bring the estate the equivalent of the full Donor Payment (paras. 22–24). The B.C. court approved the settlement on August 28, 2025, and the California court recognized that order on September 26, finding the settlement negotiated "in good faith, without collusion, and at arm's-length," per the Order Recognizing and Enforcing the Canadian Settlement Order, Sept. 26, 2025, para. F. The Ninth Report says US litigation continues and "will be detailed in a future report of the Receiver," per the Ninth Report, Sept. 15, 2026, para. 18(d).

How the pools are cut

After three auctions and three interim distributions, the receiver has paid about $6.92 million to RBC, $702,688 to Mitsubishi and $19,474 on a purchase-money claim; it expects RBC and Mitsubishi still to "suffer a significant shortfall," per the Notice of Application, Sept. 15, 2026, Part 2, paras. 16, 24–25. What remained were two kinds of dispute: assets where RBC or Mitsubishi clearly ranked first but it was unclear which, and assets where one of them would rank first but for a US lender's claim. The application describes those claims as arising "from an allegation" that a US lender financed a Kal entity's purchase of a trailer and did not consent to, or know of, its alleged transfer to Big Rig. The receiver says the settlement avoids litigation among the secured creditors over those claims. It adds that former management "have been uncooperative with the Receiver," which made some facts hard to resolve, per the Notice of Application, Sept. 15, 2026, Part 2, paras. 26–29, 34; Part 3, para. 9(b).

In the Ninth Report's summary the claims now come from three lenders: Daimler for 63 Walmart trailers and 33 of the Third Auction trailers; U.S. Bank for 49 Walmart trailers; and TBK for two Walmart trailers, six sold at the First Auction, six from the Third Auction, and three trailers already released to it in the Kal Chapter 11 and since sold, per the Ninth Report, Sept. 15, 2026, paras. 20–21. The September 10 settlement, conditional only on court approval, allocates each pool by percentage:

• Walmart lease proceeds: 65% to RBC, 35% to the applicable US lender;
• Walmart trailer sale proceeds: 100% to the applicable US lender;
• First Auction trailers where Mitsubishi has Canadian priority: 70% to Mitsubishi, 30% to TBK;
• First Auction trailers where RBC has Canadian priority: 50% each to RBC and TBK;
• Third Auction trailers: 70% to RBC, 30% to the applicable US lender;
• the three trailers TBK already sold: 100% to TBK.

Within seven days of approval the receiver would pay the balances as at a July 1, 2026 calculation date: $2,746,964.28 to RBC, $932,439.59 to Daimler, $365,267 to U.S. Bank, $107,065.91 to TBK and $57,568.74 to Mitsubishi. Walmart has kept paying since July 1, and at the date of the report the amounts had reached $2,958,626.84 for RBC, $997,249.49 for Daimler, $407,811.57 for U.S. Bank, $123,324.76 for TBK and $72,460.67 for Mitsubishi (paras. 22–23). The report states amounts in Canadian dollars unless it says otherwise (para. 14).

Ending the Walmart lease

After the August 28, 2025 order allowing an auction, Walmart told the receiver it was interested in buying the trailers after all; negotiations supported by RBC and the US lenders failed, per the Ninth Report, Sept. 15, 2026, paras. 24–28. Under the termination agreement the lease ends 60 days after approval. Walmart returns the trailers on a rolling basis, giving the receiver and the relevant US lender notice of where and when each can be collected, and pays for each trailer the lease payments to its return date, an early termination fee of 5% of that trailer's remaining lease balance, and sales tax. The 114 disputed trailers go to Daimler, U.S. Bank and TBK. Daimler's go to an auctioneer, and the receiver sells them under the 2025 auction approval and pays Daimler the net proceeds. The 115th trailer comes back to the receiver for auction. The application says that trailer is "inventory" under the Personal Property Security Act, governed by British Columbia law, and seeks to pay its proceeds to RBC, per the Notice of Application, Sept. 15, 2026, Part 2, paras. 21, 36–37, 44. The agreement is conditional on court approval on or before September 30, 2026 (para. 21(d)).

A third agreement, dated June 29, 2026, is between RBC and Mitsubishi alone and settles Mitsubishi's purchase-money claim to five trailers and five refrigeration units in British Columbia and Alberta. Four of each were sold at the First Auction; the fifth trailer and unit were stolen just before it, and the receiver collected the insurance. RBC takes the net proceeds of two trailers and three units, which the receiver calculates at $112,396.94, and Mitsubishi those of three trailers and two units, at $112,192.78. The receiver is not a party but calls the agreement "commercially reasonable in the circumstances," per the Ninth Report, Sept. 15, 2026, paras. 31–34 and App. 3, Schedules A–B.

What the court is asked on September 28

The receiver calls the two main agreements connected, each needing the other's approval, and "the best outcome available to the receivership estate." If both are approved it would no longer hold the disputed-claim reserve created by the August 28, 2025 distribution order; it would pay out under the settlements and, as to the rest, by priority, as a fourth interim distribution, per the Ninth Report, Sept. 15, 2026, paras. 29–30, 37–38. For the test it cites the Soundair factors as applied to settlements in Ontario Securities Commission v. Bridging Finance Inc., 2025 ONSC 539, and Maple Bank GmbH (Re), 2016 ONSC 7218, per the Notice of Application, Sept. 15, 2026, Part 3, paras. 5–9.

The statement of receipts and disbursements puts the whole case in figures: $21,734,834 received since the receivership order, including $12,290,230 of sale proceeds and the $3,573,008 Donor Payment, and $15,311,853 paid out, including $7,641,531 in interim distributions, $2,247,351 in legal fees and $1,492,081 in receiver's fees. The receiver held $6,422,981 on September 15, 2026, per the Ninth Report, Sept. 15, 2026, para. 35 and App. 4. The report is signed by Mark Wentzell and James Saxton. The application is set for 9:45 a.m. on September 28, 2026 at 800 Smithe Street, Vancouver, with an estimated 20 minutes, and its draft order would approve the receiver's activities from August 21, 2025 to September 15, 2026, per the Notice of Application, Sept. 15, 2026, p. 1 and Sch. "B", para. 1.