Estate of Pailhe

251 P.2d 76, 114 Cal. App. 2d 658, 1952 Cal. App. LEXIS 1224
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 12, 1952
DocketCiv. 15242
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 251 P.2d 76 (Estate of Pailhe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Pailhe, 251 P.2d 76, 114 Cal. App. 2d 658, 1952 Cal. App. LEXIS 1224 (Cal. Ct. App. 1952).

Opinion

WOOD (Fred B.), J.

Rene Pailhe, one of the heirs of the decedent, has appealed from an order directing Alfred Pailhe, as administrator, to pay the latter’s attorneys, respondents Matthew ICoppel and James G. Flaherty, $1,000 on account of fees for extraordinary services rendered by them in a certain action brought by the administrator against Rene, and to pay the official reporter $124.80 for the transcript on appeal in that action.

As grounds for reversal, appellant claims: (1) No order prescribing notice of the hearing was made by court or judge, (2) no notice of hearing was given pursuant to section 1200 of the Probate Code, (3) no petition was filed by the applicants, (4) there was no evidence before the court to support the order, and (5) the reporter’s fee was erroneously allowed.

(1) The proceeding for the order appealed from was initiated by written notice of motion by the attorneys, accompanied by the affidavit of one of them describing the extraordinary services. This notice stated that at a certain time and place the attorneys would make the indicated motion. The notice was addressed to Alfred, the administrator, and to Rene “and Messrs. Carl E. Brown, H. Jacobs and W. Dawson, his [Rene’s] attorneys.” There was no court order of any kind concerning notice .

Appellant invokes that provision of section 911 of the Probate Code which says that any attorney may apply to the court for an allowance upon his fees “upon such notice to the executor or administrator and to the persons interested in the estate as the court or judge thereof shall require.” Appellant claims that in the absence of an order prescribing such notice, the entire proceeding was void.

.The answer is that appellant appeared and participated at the hearing through his attorney, Carl E. Brown. Alfred *661 Pailhe, the administrator and the only other heir, attended and was personally present throughout the hearing.

At the outset of the hearing Brown said "I am the attorney representing Mr. Pailhe, in the matter of the estate.” It is clear from the context that he meant Bene Pailhe. The order made after that hearing recited that among those present was “Carl E. Brown, attorney for Rene Pierre Pailhe, an heir at law, representing said heir in this proceeding.” The attorney’s act in appearing for Rene carried with it a presumption of due authority upon his part to do so. (Voinich v. Rolleri, 203 Cal. 379 [264 P. 240]; 3 Cal.Jur. 647, Attorneys at Law, § 54.) Soon thereafter, Rene confirmed that presumption. September 27, 1951, * he filed a writing dated August 30, in which he declared over his signature : “I hereby substitute G. K. Burgren as attorney for myself as an heir at law and party interested in the above entitled Estate and proceedings, in place and stead of Carl E. Brown, former attorney of record for me therein.”

By his voluntary appearance at the hearing appellant waived any defect there may have been in the giving of notice to him. It is like Estate of Palm, 68 Cal.App.2d 204, 213-214 [156 P.2d 62], in which it was held that an administrator’s appearance and participation in a hearing on the merits rendered innocuous the failure to serve him with the citation required by section 1206 of the Probate Code. (See, also, Estate of Pierce, 28 Cal.App.2d 8, 11-12 [81 P.2d 1037]; Estate of Brainard, 76 Cal.App.2d 850, 853-854 [174 P.2d 702]; and Estate of Reinhertz, 82 Cal.App.2d 156, 161 [185 P.2d 858, 186 P.2d 755].)

Appellant relies upon Olcese v. Superior Court, 210 Cal. 566 [292 P. 964], and Bank of America v. Fidelity & D. Co., 9 Cal.App.2d 687 [51 P.2d 472], as holding that failure to give notice as prescribed by law prevents a court from obtaining jurisdiction to proceed. The Olcese case involved an order appointing a special administrator without the notice prescribed by statute, indeed, without any notice whatsoever, the trial court having found, when making the appointment, that no notice was necessary. That bears no resemblance to our case, one in which a party who attends and participates at the hearing later raises the question of notice. In the Bank of America case, the reviewing court held that an order merely directing a guardian to give a new bond did not *662 operate to exonerate the old bond upon the giving of the new. In interpreting that order, the court noted that the sureties on the original bond had not applied for an order of discharge, that no notice of a proposed discharge had been given, and that no order for discharge had been made. The court then directed attention to section 1483 of the Probate Code which authorizes discharge of sureties “after such notice given as the court may direct, ’ ’ and quoted from the Cleese case to the effect that such a notice is jurisdictional. It- is apparent that the facts of the Bank of-America case render those remarks inapplicable to our case.

(2) Appellant predicates lack of jurisdiction, also, upon a failure to gwe the notice prescribed by section 1200 of the Probate Code “in all cases in which notice is required and no other time or method is prescribed by law or by court or by judge.”

Appellant’s appearance and participation at the hearing operated as a waiver of any objection he may have had, predicated upon asserted lack of notice, for the same reasons as those indicated in our discussion of his similar objection predicated upon section 911 of the Probate Code. He relies upon Stiebel v. Roberts, 42 Cal.App.2d 434 [109 P.2d 22]; Guardianship of Carlon, 43 Cal.App.2d 204 [110 P.2d 488]; Security-First Nat. Bank v. Superior Court, 1 Cal.2d 749 [37 P.2d 69]; and Lilienkamp v. Superior Court, 14 Cal.2d 293 [93 P.2d 1008]. But none of those cases is apt. None involves the waiver of a prescribed notice by the appearance and participation of the very person for whose benefit the' notice was prescribed.

(3) Appellant claims that only a “petition” could satisfy the jurisdictional requirements for the initiation of such a proceeding as this. The statute says nothing about a “petition.” It says that an attorney who has rendered services to an executor or administrator may “apply” to the court for an allowance upon his fees.

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Bluebook (online)
251 P.2d 76, 114 Cal. App. 2d 658, 1952 Cal. App. LEXIS 1224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-pailhe-calctapp-1952.