Supreme Court of Russia deprived bankruptcy trustee of remuneration due to bad faith

The Economic Board considered the issue of payment of remuneration to the bankruptcy trustee of the debtor, which was calculated according to the results of the sale of property at auction. The application was rejected by the first instance, however, the appeal and district courts canceled the judicial act, and the claims of the trustee were satisfied.  The Supreme Court of Russia figured out the issue and rejected his claim, citing dishonest behavior.

The fact is that the auction held by the trustee manager was controversial. In the process of considering the insolvency case, four creditors with a total debt of 1.8 million rubles were identified.

After that, an individual turned to the arbitration court, expressing his intention to pay off the debt in full, in confirmation of his words, the required amount was transferred into the court's deposit account.

Despite the intention of the third party to solve the problem of the debtor's financial insolvency, the trustee of the latter made a decision to sell the property. At the same time, the aggregate value of real estate objects sold at auction was several times higher than the total amount of debt.

Considering the application of the bankruptcy trustee for payment of remuneration to him, the court of first instance rejected the claims, citing his unfair behavior.

However, the appeal and the district court did not support this position, considering that there were no violations in the actions of the trustee.

The panel of judges of the Supreme Court of Russia supported the position stated in the first instance, indicating that the bankruptcy trustee, due to the nature of his activities, must remain impartial and strive to maintain a balance of interests of all parties to the bankruptcy case (decision № 305-ES21-10040 of 14 October 2021).