By Paul, Weiss
On June 28, 2021, in the chapter 11 cases of Paragon Offshore plc and certain of its affiliates (“Paragon” or the “Debtors”), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware denied the U.S. Trustee’s motion to compel payment of $250,000 in statutory fees assessed against litigation trust distributions. In its opinion, the Bankruptcy Court concluded that the U.S. Trustee had already collected all statutory fees due: first, when Paragon transferred its litigation claims to the litigation trust (the “Trust”) under its plan, and second, when the defendant in the Trust litigation, itself a chapter 11 debtor, later paid statutory fees in its own chapter 11 case based on, among other things, the cash settlement payment it made to the Trust. Finding the U.S. Trustee’s “attempt to double, or triple collect” the statutory fees “offensive,” the Bankruptcy Court held that the Trust’s payments of settlement proceeds to its beneficiaries were not “disbursements” made by or on behalf of the Debtors within the meaning of the U.S. Trustee fee statute, and as a result, that no such fees were payable.
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