Opinion
No. 75 B 1538
June 13, 1979
Arrangements — Compensation — Receivers
A receiver whose services rendered in a Chapter XI proceeding were not in excess of his statutory duties or those required by the court is entitled, at most, to the maximum statutory allowable amount of compensation set forth in Section 48a(2) of the Bankruptcy Act.
The receiver requested an amount in excess of the maximum statutory allowable amount set forth in Section 48a(2) of the Bankruptcy Act, alleging that comparable services performed by him in his general practice of law would normally be billed in that amount. The receiver relied upon Bankruptcy Rule 219(c)(2) which states that "[a]dditional compensation may be allowed for legal or other services required of him [the receiver] by the Act or by these rules, but only if such services were authorized by order of the court before they were rendered." Because the court found that the services rendered in this case were not in excess of the receiver's statutory duties, nor of those required by the court, the receiver was allowed the maximum statutory amount set forth in Section 48a(2). See Sec. 48a(2) at ¶ 2386 and Rule 219(c)(2) at ¶ 20,069.
Arrangements — Compensation — Attorneys for Receiver
In considering the application for compensation by the attorneys for the receiver, whose services were retained for a period of little more than a year, the court noted that the relevant factors to be considered are ". . .the time spent, the intricacy of the questions involved, the size of the estate, the opposition encountered, the results obtained and the `economic spirit' of the Bankruptcy Act to curtail unnecessary expenses."
In addition to the fact that the attorneys' documentation reflected 20.50 hours spent on one day and 14 hours spent on another day in working on the case as well as several hours of time many months after the adjudication and replacement of their services by counsel to the trustee, the application failed to indicate that any serious litigation or any extraordinary obstacle was involved during the one year tenure of the attorneys. Because the court felt that the amount requested, $12,500 for 213.50 hours of work, was "at the lower end of the spectrum of reasonableness", the award was allowed to the extent of $10,500 plus disbursements in accordance with Rule 219 of the Bankruptcy Rules of Procedure. See Rule 219 at ¶ 20,069.