26.1. Selection criteria and appearance in the process The intervenors (interventores), administrators (administradores concursales), and insolvency liquidators (liquidadores concursales) shall be selected from a list prepared, through competitive examinations, by the office authorized by the Supreme Court of Justice (Corte Suprema de Justicia). Members of the list may not reject the designations made to them, except for duly justified reasons, before the respective office. Once notified by any means they have registered, they must appear in the process within the next three days.
For the designation, the ordinary course (giro ordinario) of the economic activity of the insolvent debtor (concursado), when carried out, shall be considered, preferentially persons specialized in the respective branch. If there are several qualified persons, they shall be selected strictly according to their turn within the list.
26.2. Incompatibility and prohibitions The following may not be appointed as intervenors, administrators (administradores concursales), or insolvency liquidators (liquidadores concursales):
- 1)Those who are legally disqualified from administering their own or others' assets.
- 2)Those who have worked for or provided services of any kind to the insolvent debtor (concursado) or to the persons especially related to them, within the five years prior to the opening of the insolvency proceeding (concurso).
- 3)Those who are persons especially related to the insolvent debtor.
- 4)Those whose domicile is outside the Republic of Costa Rica.
- 5)Those who have been removed by a final resolution (resolución firme) from an insolvency office (cargo concursal) during the year preceding the time of designation.
- 6)Those who have submitted final management accounts in another insolvency process and these have been rejected by a final resolution in the year preceding the designation.
26.3. Challenge (Recusación) The intervenors, administrators, and insolvency liquidators may be challenged (recusados) for any of the causes of incompatibility or prohibition established by law, as well as those provided for by civil procedural law for the challenge of experts.
The procedure shall be that provided for the challenge of experts in the cited legislation, and its processing shall not produce suspensive effects.
26.4. Alternates The alternate intervenors, administrators, and insolvency liquidators (suplentes) shall assume their functions immediately in the event of temporary or definitive absences of the principals (propietarios) and also in those matters in which the principals are prevented from participating because they have a personal interest in conflict with those of the insolvency proceeding (concurso).
26.5. Remuneration The intervenors, administrators, and insolvency liquidators shall have the right to remuneration charged to the estate (masa).
The Supreme Court of Justice (Corte Suprema de Justicia) shall regulate the tariff to fix the remuneration of each of them. It must consider the complexity of the matter and the functions they exercise, the duration of the offices, the amount of the assets and liabilities, as well as the result of the management. They shall earn monthly fees while they remain in the exercise of their offices, when the insolvency proceeding continues or carries out economic activities.
At the request of the interested party, the court shall set the corresponding fees. The petition must justify the intended amount.
In the event of cessation, removal, or resignation, the procedure shall be as indicated, but the estimation of fees shall be proportional to the stage of the process and the work performed by the professional.
26.6. Removal Ex officio or at the request of any interested party, the court may remove intervenors, administrators, or insolvency liquidators from office for unjustified delay in their management or any other serious breach of their functions.
When urged by an interested party, the incidental proceeding (trámite incidental) shall be followed.
The filing of appeals against the resolution ordering removal shall not prevent the assumption of office by the alternates (suplentes), while the challenges are resolved.
Removal shall not imply the loss of the fees to which the removed person is entitled, up to that point.
26.7. Reports Within the five days following the end of each calendar quarter, the acting intervenors, administrators, and insolvency liquidators must submit a detailed report of their management and the relevant aspects for the insolvency proceeding (concurso).
If necessary, they shall attach the documentation supporting what is reported. In addition to the reports they must submit in accordance with this law, ex officio or at the request of an interested party, the court may order them to submit specific reports or reports on the general state of the insolvency proceeding.
When the insolvent debtor (concursado) partially or totally retains the administration of the insolvency assets (bienes concursales), they shall be obliged to render quarterly reports of that management, as well as any other report requested by the court.
26.8. Liability The intervenors, administrators, and insolvency liquidators shall be liable, to the debtor and the creditors, for the damages caused to the estate (masa) arising from their acts and omissions contrary to the law or performed without due diligence.
The action shall be processed via the insolvency incidental proceeding (incidente concursal) and shall prescribe at two years, counted from the moment the legitimate interested party was able to assert it. The party filing it shall do so at their own account and risk.
If the judgment includes an award for damages, the creditor or creditors who have sued in the interest of the estate shall enjoy the benefits that this law grants for judgments upholding non-opposability actions (acciones de inoponibilidad) for acts harmful to the insolvency proceeding.
26.9. Rendering of final accounts The administrators, intervenors, and insolvency liquidators must render an account of their management within the fifteen days following the conclusion of their functions. By unanimity of the creditors appearing in the process with the consent of the insolvent person (persona concursada), the duty to render accounts may be waived.
The account shall be made known to the interested parties for a period of fifteen days. It shall be approved if there is no founded opposition, there is no discrepancy with what is documented in the file, and it does not contravene the law. Otherwise, its correction shall be ordered within a period of five days. The presented account shall be rejected if it is not satisfactorily corrected, unless, for a single time, a second warning is issued in exceptional cases, when the obligor's intention to rectify the indicated defects is evident.
If the final account presented is not formulated or is rejected, in the resolution issued, the court shall inform the Judicial Branch (Poder Judicial) office in charge of the respective lists for the appropriate administrative action, without prejudice to the civil and criminal liabilities they may have incurred.
26.10. Registration in public registries The designation and removal of administrators, intervenors, and insolvency liquidators, as well as variations in their administration and representation powers, shall be registered in the corresponding public registries.
26.11. Management of the lists The office designated by the Supreme Court of Justice (Corte Suprema de Justicia) shall maintain a list of persons registered as intervenors, administrators, and insolvency liquidators, which must contain, at a minimum, the following:
- 1)The name and professional background of the registered persons.
- 2)The designations and cessations from office for each one, with due mention of the reasons.
- 3)The upheld challenges (recusaciones acogidas) and their grounds, against the professionals or legal entities exercising the offices.
- 4)The liability actions upheld by final judgment (sentencia firme), against those who have held insolvency offices (cargos concursales), with an indication of the facts and legal grounds of the judicial decision.
- 5)The final rejections of the management accounts they have submitted.
- 6)The civil, criminal, and administrative sanctions imposed on them on the occasion of the exercise of their offices.
- 7)Any other fact or circumstance, at the discretion of the judicial courts, that is relevant for the purpose of evaluating the continuation or renewal of the individuals and legal entities that make up the lists.
Public and private entities shall inform the designated Judicial Branch (Poder Judicial) office of any fact they consider relevant for the administrative management of the lists.