Opinion ID: 3009882
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Amount of the Sanction

Text: As discussed above, the bankruptcy court sanctioned FE&B by denying FE&B's entire fees application, except for $15,000 for reimbursement of expenses. In its initial brief before this court, FE&B claims that the total amount of compensation due to it amounts to approximately $260,000. This figure represents $167,246.50 allegedly accrued from January 20, 1993, through August 21, 1993,10 plus $92,169 which allegedly accrued from August 22, 1993, through December 15, 1993. As the district court noted, however, there is nothing in the record to indicate that FE&B ever submitted a fees application to the bankruptcy court for this latter time period. Therefore, FE&B's claim for fees for this latter time period is not properly before this court. Thus, our review of the bankruptcy court's denial of FE&B's fees application reaches only the amount attributable to the period before August 22, 1993: $167,246.50. Needless to say, absent the sanction, FE&B would not necessarily have received even this reduced amount: The Committee, for example, 10 FE&B had attempted to appease the bankruptcy court by sanctioning itself for the filing of the complaint. FE&B had accordingly subtracted $33,029--the amount attributable to the filing of the complaint--from its original request of $200,275.50 for this time period. had hotly contested FE&B's hourly rates as they exceeded those normally charged in that area. FE&B contests the bankruptcy court's decision to deny its entire fees application on the ground that it did perform at least some services of value to the Debtor. Assuming arguendo that FE&B has performed services of value to the Debtor, we nonetheless uphold the sanctions in their entirety. The bankruptcy court justified its decision to deny FE&B's entire fees application as follows: [A]ny fees to be collected by [Fellheimer] shall be collected from his real client, Burke. . . . Fellheimer's inappropriate conduct affected and continues to affect this entire case. Both the Debtor and its counsel have exhibited conduct of dishonesty, incompetency and gross mismanagement of the affairs of the Debtor. Charter Techs., 160 B.R. at 932-33. Based on the extensive record of wrongdoing documented by the bankruptcy court, which we have already upheld, we cannot find this result to be clearly erroneous. Accordingly, we must affirm the denial of FE&B's entire fees application.