The administrator of Bermuda-based mutual fund RCM Global Long Term Capital Appreciation Ltd., yesterday sought clarification of the fund's status, pending a court hearing scheduled for September 28.

A decision was handed down Friday by a New York judge that Daiwa America Corp.

should return $33 million it seized from the fund's currency-trading account, easing concern in the $100 billion offshore fund industry.

Mr. Paul Thorne, corporate trust manager at International Corporate Management of Bermuda Ltd., RCM Global's Bermuda-based administrator, said that he wrote to Daiwa on Friday seeking confirmation of the exact amount being returned to the brokerage account.

The fund's directors may soon consider estimating a net asset value (NAV) to satisfy the needs of investors pending the court battle, instead of continuing to have the NAV suspended.

Daiwa had seized the RCM Global funds to cover losses from another account that was controlled by the fund's manager, Rowayton Capital Management -- an action that dismayed managers and administrators.

Expressing doubts about whether Daiwa's action was proper, New York State Supreme Court Justice, Mr. Walter M. Schackman, told Daiwa to restore the fund's account and freeze it until the case is resolved.

Mr. Thorne said yesterday, "I asked for confirmation of the exact amount that was going back into the account and a complete accounting of interest earned.

"We don't know what price they (Daiwa) got when they liquidated all the different open contracts and the exchange and the currency options.'' "The first thing we need to be able to do is an accurate accounting and do a valuation. Then it is a question of meeting with the directors to take the next action.

"I still need to get information out of Daiwa to confirm that the funds have been put back, exactly what the value is, how they've been invested and how they are going to be invested.

"We'll be looking to probably instruct them, within the realms of what the judge ordered, as to how the funds should be invested.'' The judge ordered that RCM Global's funds were to be invested in short-term certificates of deposit or short term US Government securities, while they were frozen in the brokerage account.

In ordering that the money be returned to the brokerage account, Justice Schackman said the Daiwa seizure could cause irreparable harm to the fund.

He wrote, "Here, the action of the plaintiff has put the defendant fund into a state such that it may well disappear and effectively be dissolved before a judgment can be obtained so that damages alone may prove of little help to the fund.'' The decision was hailed as "a good first step'' by Mr. Thorne.

A Daiwa spokesman told Bloomberg news service, "We are ready, willing and able to move on the merits of the case. We proposed this in order to avoid jousting over the preliminary matters and to permit the litigation to move directly to the merits. If this makes the fund's investors more comfortable during the pendency of the litigation, we're willing to do it.'' Funds like RCM Global are set up in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and elsewhere to give foreign investors access to US money managers, without paying US taxes.

Rowayton Capital Management, RCM's manager, had 15 accounts at Daiwa which have now been moved from the brokerage house.

Daiwa played down the importance of that move, according to Bloomberg. "It's important to note that this is a preliminary matter unrelated to the substantive matter yet to be decided,'' the business news agency quoted a Daiwa spokesman.

"On those matters, it's important to note that Daiwa's actions were warranted by the facts and justified by the documentation at hand, and that Daiwa's ongoing business activity will not be impacted irrespective of the outcome of the litigation.''