Judge Sandra Feuerstein
Chapter 7 trustee Kirschenbaum administered an ERISA plan for debtor Robert Plan Corp.’s former employees. In addition to seeking bankruptcy court authorization to terminate the ERISA plan, the trustee sought to retain law firm Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum (K&K) as counsel, and Witz and Whitfield as a pension consultant and independent auditor. Deeming the trustee subject to its jurisdiction, bankruptcy court authorized payment of interim and final fees from a "Pguy Account" not part of debtor’s estate. Its Aug. 20, 2012, compensation order awarded Witz and Whitfield $47,823 and $54,111. It also made interim awards of $132,378 to the trustee and $47,628 in fees to K&K. District court granted Labor Secretary Solis leave to appeal the interim fee awards to the trustee and K&K only as to the bankruptcy court’s determination that it held jurisdiction to order their payment from the Pguy Account. Interlocutory appeal of bankruptcy court’s calculation of the interim fee to the trustee was denied. The gist of the secretary’s argument was that the award was unreasonable. The dispute over the award’s size would not be resolved by the court’s determination of the propriety of calculating the maximum fee award under Bankruptcy Code §326(a).
