Court Opinion

ID: 8764767
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-26 12:20:42.775172+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:01:47.836748
License: Public Domain

CHATFIELD, District Judge.
This motion comes, up- upon the report of a spécial commissioner, allowing the receiver and his attorneys certain sums for their services in involuntary bankruptcy proceedings. The estate was small, but much of the property now in the hands of the trustee seems to have been obtained through the efforts of the receiver and his attorneys. A number of claimants for wages objected to the expenses of the receiver, and to the allowances given him and his attorneys, for the reason that the sum which will be left, applicable to the payment of wages claims, is not sufficient to pay the whole of those claims, and that the receivership has been too expensive.
It certainly appears, in the light of present circumstances, that this receivership has cost more than the necessities, viewed from the point of results, would justify, but, as found by the referee, the items of expense appear to have seemed reasonable and necessary at the time they were incurred, and it does not seem that the receiver and his attorneys can be blamed or held responsible, inasmuch as they apparently acted according to their best judgment and upon sufficient cause at the time. The amount allowed them for their services is not excessive, and while the hardship to the claimants, who are wage earners, would have had an effect upon the situation, if it could have been viewed from the present standpoint, nevertheless it seems that, if the receiver and his attorneys had not acted as they did, the wage earners would receive even less than they will under the present circumstances.
The report of the special commissioner will therefore be confirmed in all respects.