Supreme Court of Russia resolved the issue of remuneration between bankruptcy trustees

The Economic Board of the Supreme Court of Russia considered the case on the complaint of a trustee, whose claim was rejected by the lower courts, which cited the expiration of the statute of limitations. The trustee wanted to receive a portion of the remuneration that he believed was due to him as a part of the debtor's bankruptcy case.

The applicant had worked as a bankruptcy trustee for eight months, after which he was replaced by another person. Then, in the course of the insolvency procedure, the pledged property was sold, and the second trustee received his remuneration as a percentage of the sold property. However, the applicant considered that he was entitled to a part of the funds in proportion to the period of his work as well and filed a corresponding claim with the court.

The courts of three instances rejected the claim, citing the omission of the three-month deadline for filing it.

When considering the complaint, the Supreme Court of Russia recalled that in a situation where an insolvency case was conducted by several managers, the remuneration should be calculated as a percentage of the amount of time that each of them had worked. In exceptional cases, the court may deviate from this rule if the contribution of one is clearly greater than the contribution of the other.

At the same time, the issue of the amount of interest, to which the three-month limitation period is applicable, was previously resolved by the court, and the applicant's claims, in essence, were directed to the second bankruptcy trustee, who received all the money. Consequently, the application of the three-month limitation period is incorrect in the case under consideration, concluded the Supreme Court of Russia (decision №. 305-ES19-21725 of July 15, 2021).