THE DISTRICT COURT DID NOT RECOGNIZE THE FAULT OF BANKRUPTCY TRUSTEE IN THE INSUFFICIENCY OF BANKRUPTCY ESTATE

The Commercial Court of the North-Western District considered the case on recovering losses from the bankruptcy trustee.  The claim was filed by one of the creditors, referring to the fact that the trustee did not challenge the exclusion of one of the debtor's creditors from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.  Thus, in the opinion of the initiator of the case, the creditors did not receive the amount of the debt of the company excluded from the register.

When considering the dispute, the opinions of the judges were different: the first and the second instances took the side of the applicant, but the district court supported the trustee.

His arguments were that the applicant had not proved the fact of receiving funds from the creditor excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. In addition, the trustee referred to his lack of information about the intention to exclude the creditor company from the register.

When considering the issue, the board of the cassation instance noted that earlier, the court had already given an assessment to the actions of the trustee, who wrote off the disputed debt in connection with the exclusion of the creditor from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The creditor's complaint to the court was dismissed, and that case had prejudicial effect on the present dispute.

Thus, the court concluded that there was no unlawful behavior of the trustee, which excludes the possibility of recovering losses from him.

In addition, the cassation noted that the insufficiency of the bankruptcy estate of the debtor in the case under consideration was not the trustee’s fault (resolution of June 18, 2021 in case No. A56-50923/2017).