A federal court has ruled that FedEx prematurely canceled a key agreement with ATA Airlines, a move which caused the airline to file for bankruptcy and ultimately undergo liquidation.

A federal court has ruled that FedEx prematurely canceled a key agreement with ATA Airlines, a move which caused the airline to file for bankruptcy and ultimately undergo liquidation.

The U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana, ruled that FedEx pay $66 million to former ATA employees and creditors. However the move is not expected to reinstate the company.

"With respect to ATA, this is not going to bring them back. I expect much of the money would go to JP Morgan Chase because the bank had a loan of nearly one-third of a billion dollars to ATA," John D. Hoover, an attorney for ATA, told The Indianapolis Star.

In preparations for an agreement for military charter flights, ATA spent $50 million on airplanes and other expenses. The jury found that FedEx's cancellation of the deal caused ATA to lose multi-million dollar profits in 2008 and 2009, the news source says.

The news comes two years after the bankruptcy filing. ATA struggled financially after the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001, suffering from decreased revenues following the decline in air travel.