Delafield, Marsh & Hope v. Silbiger

228 F.2d 838
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJanuary 20, 1956
DocketNo. 172, Docket 23781
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 228 F.2d 838 (Delafield, Marsh & Hope v. Silbiger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Delafield, Marsh & Hope v. Silbiger, 228 F.2d 838 (2d Cir. 1956).

Opinion

CLARK, Chief Judge.

These are appeals from allowances to counsel for the litigation and adjudication terminating in Prudence Realization Corp. v. Jackson, 2 Cir., 212 F.2d 362, the last (as is hoped) of the extensive litigation therein .briefly summarized caused by the failure in the early ’30s of Prudence Bonds Corporation and its guarantor, The Prudence Company, Inc., on bonds secured by trust funds consisting, inter alia, of New York realty mortgages. The first appeal is by Messrs. Delafield, Marsh & Hope and Charles M. McCarty, who contend that allowances to them of $4,000 and $3,000 respectively are inadequate recompense for a recovery in excess of $750,000 from the guarantor’s successor of interest on retired bonds of Prudence Bonds Corporation as finally determined in the second of the three issues considered and decided in the Jackson case. The Dela-field firm has served as the attorneys for City Bank Farmers Trust Company, the court-appointed trustee of the eighteen series of these publicly held bonds, while McCarty since 1938 has been the attorney for Prudence Bonds Corporation, the new corporation formed pursuant to the confirmed plan of reorganization of the debtor, Prudence Bonds Corporation; and both have appeared herein as the court-designated representatives of the claimants on these retired bonds. The other appeal is by Prudence Realization Corporation, the successor corporation in reorganization to The Prudence Company, Inc., which opposes all allowances to counsel, including appellants Delafield and McCarty, as well as the nonappeal-ing attorneys, Messrs. Samuel Silbiger, Koenig & Bachner, and Benjamin, Gal-ton & Robbins, who were awarded the sums of $5,000, $3,000, and $1,000 respectively.

All claims for allowances to counsel in these great reorganization proceedings tend to present questions complicated to a degree which here are indeed magnified. Our present problem is the more difficult because soon after the decision in the Jackson case the Realization Corporation asked for instructions and for the ascertainment and settlement of counsel allowances in The Prudence Company reorganization. Accordingly rather extensive proceedings were had therein wherein these counsel, together with others, claimed full allowance for their activities against the guarantor company and its successor, Realization, which opposed the grants. But the judge did not wholly adopt the view of either. Although he has not written extensive opinions, his approach appears quite clearly there and here. He obviously concluded that losing counsel, as well as those whose positions were sustained, were entitled to allowances from the estate of the guarantor and its successor, because the adjudications were all necessary steps toward the final disposition of these proceedings. So various attorneys had asked for a total of $311,000 for services (plus $8,419.97 for expenses) ; and after the hearing, allowances aggregating $80,250 for services, together with the requested expenses, were made by him and paid by Realization from the Prudence estate. Of this sum at least $47,750 went to unsuccessful counsel. Thus the largest single allowance of [840]*840$20,000 for services (together with expenses of $1,372.30) went to Percival E. Jackson, who unsuccessfully argued against the claim of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which, however, was upheld in the first of the three issues considered in the Jackson case, supra. Appellants Delafield, Marsh & Hope received two allowances of $5,000 each— one on the issue here involved, and the other, as representing the Hurd Committee, for joining Mr. Jackson in the unsuccessful contest of the RFC claim. Additional allowances there made were $7,-500 to McCarty, $12,500 to Silbiger, $7,~ 500 to Koenig & Bachner, and $5,000 to Benjamin, Galton & Robbins, together with their appropriate expenses. The allowances to Silbiger and Koenig & Bachner covered both successful and unsuccessful claims, while that to Benjamin, Galton & Robbins was entirely in opposition to the claim on the retired bonds.

After Judge Inch had announced these awards the Realization Corporation and the RFC presented and supported a form of order which stated that these were final allowances for the services indicated. But the attorneys opposed and presented- a different form of order which Judge Inch accepted after hearing and complete presentation of the opposing positions. The order actually entered in the Prudence proceeding states only that these were “fair and reasonable compensation and final allowances from the Estate of the Debtor herein” for services rendered and expenses incurred in said proceedings (the words here italicized being those added by the judge to the form urged by Realization) and in addition has a completely new paragraph stating specifically that it was without prejudice to any applications in the proceedings for the reorganization of the present debtor (the original obligor, Prudence Bonds Corporation).1 So on the instant applications for further recompense, Judge Inch expressly states that he takes into account the allowances already made from the Estate of The Prudence Company, Inc., and makes these additional allowances for the benefit which the services have conferred upon the estate of this present debtor.

Thus it will be noted, by way of summary, that Messrs. Delafield, Marsh & Hope received a total of $10,000 in the earlier proceeding, of which $5,000 is al-locable to their services in the instant matter, and have now been awarded $4,-000 additional, while Mr. McCarty received $7,500 originally and is now awarded $3,000 more. Both these are asking for the full amount they originally requested for their services on this issue, to wit, $35,000 each, or an increase for the Delafield firm to $30,000, and for McCarty to $27,500. And the nonappeal-ing attorneys have received the following total amounts, viz., Silbiger $17,500,. Messrs. Koenig & Bachner $10,500 — in each case unallocated between the claims —and Messrs. Benjamin, Galton & Robbins $6,000 for opposing the claim here involved.

The basic position of the Realization Corporation on this appeal is that all attorneys received adequate compensation by the earlier Prudence allowances and cannot now claim more. Its main basis for this argument is that in thatV proceeding it evaluated the activities of the lawyers and gave Judge Inch reeom-' mendations of stated amounts as representing full compensation, and that these are the exact amounts there awarded by Judge Inch to the various lawyers. But we do not see how this interesting fact can be given controlling significance against the quite express findings and [841]*841decision of the judge made not only in the settlement of the order therein as recounted above, but again reiterated explicitly in making the additional allowances herein. Indeed, since we have determined not to follow the recommendations of the judge completely, we need do no more than refer to the provisions of the earlier order. — set forth in footnote 1 — which explicitly make the present issue not res adjudicata. Accordingly Realization’s appeal must fail except insofar as the individual awards are found excessive or unsubstantiated. To this we now turn.

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