11 U.S.C. § 323
Section 323 · Role and capacity of trustee
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 691 court decisions — leading case Koch Refining v. Farmers Union Central Exchange, Inc. (1987)
Most recently applied in 141 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 18 - BLACK v. DIST. CT. (GOODCHILD) (April 2025)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 11 U.S.C. § 541 · 28 U.S.C. § 157 · 11 U.S.C. § 704
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.
(a) The trustee in a case under this title is the representative of the estate.
(b) The trustee in a case under this title has capacity to sue and be sued.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Subsection (a) of this section makes the trustee the representative of the estate. Subsection (b) grants the trustee the capacity to sue and to be sued. If the debtor remains in possession in a chapter 11 case, section 1107 gives the debtor in possession these rights of the trustee: the debtor in possession becomes the representative of the estate, and may sue and be sued. The same applies in a chapter 13 case.