In a bankruptcy case filed 91 years ago (and reopened 85 years later), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia recently denied creditors’ counsel’s motion for a fee enhancement under the “common fund doctrine,” finding it could not award the requested fees absent statutory authority. In particular, the court determined it would be an abuse of its equitable powers to award fees beyond the scope of applicable bankruptcy law in In re Yellow Poplar Lumber, Case No. 605 B.R. 416 (Bankr. W.D. Va. 2019).

Background

In July 1928, White Oak Lumber Co. filed an involuntary Chapter 7 petition in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of South Carolina, seeking to have Yellow Poplar Lumber Co., Inc. “adjudged a bankrupt” under the Bankruptcy Act of 1898.  n 1931, the district court adjudged Yellow Poplar as bankrupt and closed the case.

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