11 U.S.C. § 1108
Section 1108 · Authorization to operate business
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 220 court decisions — leading case Dant Russell Inc Burlington Northern Railroad Company v. Dant & Russell Inc (1988)
Most recently applied in In re A Top New Casting, Inc. (March 2019)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 11 U.S.C. § 1107 · 11 U.S.C. § 363 · 28 U.S.C. § 157
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Unless the court, on request of a party in interest and after notice and a hearing, orders otherwise, the trustee may operate the debtor's business.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
The House amendment adopts section 1108 of the House bill in preference to the style of an identical substantive provision contained in the Senate amendment. Throughout title 11 references to a “trustee” is read to include other parties under various sections of the bill. For example, section 1107 applies to give the debtor in possession all the rights and powers of a trustee in a case under chapter 11; this includes the power of the trustee to operate the debtor's business under section 1108.
senate report no. 95–989
This section permits the debtor's business to continue to be operated, unless the court orders otherwise. Thus, in a reorganization case, operation of the business will be the rule, and it will not be necessary to go to the court to obtain an order authorizing operation.
house report no. 95–595
This section does not presume that a trustee will be appointed to operate the business of the debtor. Rather, the power granted to trustee under this section is one of the powers that a debtor in possession acquires by virtue of proposed 11 U.S.C. 1107.
Amendments
1984—Pub. L. 98–353 inserted “, on request of a party in interest and after notice and a hearing,”.
Effective Date of 1984 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 98–353 effective with respect to cases filed 90 days after July 10, 1984, see section 552(a) of Pub. L. 98–353, set out as a note under section 101 of this title.