The takeover made HBC the administrator of the Simpsons pension plan, which had a surplus at the time.

Read: HBC employees losing post-retirement benefits, keeping DB pension benefits amid closure

The court filing doesn’t say how big the surplus was when the acquisition happened, but says annual pension statement reports HBC sent Simpsons workers showed that as of Jan. 1, 2024, there was about $167.03 million in a trust fund linked to HBC’s overall plan.

Any surplus the company has stands to become a flashpoint in HBC’s ongoing creditor protection case because lawyers have expressed doubt that the retailer will be able to repay the $1.1 billion it owed creditors when it collapsed.

The debt caused the business, once Canada’s oldest company, to close all of its stores over the summer, ending jobs for about 9,300 people.

HBC declined to comment on the class-action lawsuit, which was filed in June but flew under the radar until a judge in its creditor protection case mentioned it at a hearing earlier this week.

The class-action was filed by employment law firm Koskie Minsky LLP and names Telus Communications Inc. and RBC Investment as respondents. Telus was appointed in April as the HBC pension plan administrator by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario. RBC holds the assets of the plan.

The court filing making the case for Simpsons workers to get a share of any surplus left offers a peek at how HBC’s growth shaped its pension plans, but also pitted some...

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