[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2592 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2592

To amend title 11 of the United States Code to provide private trustees 
  the right to seek judicial review of United States trustee actions 
            related to trustee expenses and trustee removal.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 1, 1997

    Mr. Goodlatte (for himself, Mr. Smith of Texas, and Mr. Barr of 
   Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 11 of the United States Code to provide private trustees 
  the right to seek judicial review of United States trustee actions 
            related to trustee expenses and trustee removal.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Private Trustee Reform Act of 
1997''.

SEC. 2. PRIVATE TRUSTEES.

    (a) Compensation of Officers.--Section 330 of title 11, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) Upon the motion of a trustee appointed under section 586(b) 
of title 28, and after an opportunity for an administrative hearing on 
the record, the court shall have the authority, notwithstanding section 
326(b) of this title, to determine the actual, necessary expenses of 
such trustee. In determining actual, necessary expenses, the court 
shall consider all relevant factors, including--
            ``(1) whether the expense will benefit the administration 
        of cases by the trustee; and
            ``(2) whether the expense is reasonable, based upon the 
        customary and usual expenses incurred by fiduciaries providing 
        services of comparable nature in matters other than cases under 
        this title.''.
    (b) Removal of Trustee or Examiner.--Section 324 of title 11, 
United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(c)(1) Notwithstanding any provision of section 586 of title 28, 
in the event the United States trustee decides to cease assigning cases 
to a trustee appointed under section 586(a) or (b) of title 28, the 
trustee, after an opportunity for an administrative hearing on the 
record, may seek judicial review of such decision. Upon review, the 
court may reverse the decision only if the United States trustee has 
acted unreasonably or without cause. The failure of the United States 
trustee to make a final administrative disposition of a trustee's 
request to reconsider the decision to cease assigning cases within 
thirty days of such request shall be deemed an exhaustion of all 
administrative remedies for purposes of this subsection.
    ``(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, and pending the 
exhaustion of available administrative remedies or a judicial 
determination on the merits, the court may order injunctive relief in 
favor of the trustee.''.
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