In re the Estate of Richards

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York

In re the Estate of Richards

144 A.D.2d 315, 534 N.Y.S.2d 181, 1988 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11982

CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York

DecidedNovember 29, 1988

StatusPublished

This text of 144 A.D.2d 315 (In re the Estate of Richards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

In re the Estate of Richards, 144 A.D.2d 315, 534 N.Y.S.2d 181, 1988 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11982 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1988).

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Opinion

Order, Surrogate’s Court, Queens County (Louis D. Laurino, S.), entered on or about December 23, 1986, which, inter alia, determined that the fair and reasonable value of the services rendered by the attorneys for the executor was $4,500 and directed the return to the estate of all moneys taken as attorneys’ fees in excess of that amount, unanimously modified, on the law and on the facts, to award a counsel fee of $5,888 and, except as thus modified, affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The attorneys representing this estate are the executor and his brother, who practice in a partnership. After a hearing, the Surrogate awarded a counsel fee of $4,500, rather than the $18,110.60 requested, to which the distributees had consented. While we agree with the Surrogate’s finding that much of the time billed as legal work was expended in an executorial capacity and, thus, with the determination to disallow the charges therefor, the time sheets for purely legal work aggregate $5,888 (36.8 hours at $160). The court failed to provide a rationale or calculation as to how it arrived at the figure of $4,500. In the absence of such an explanation, we modify to increase the award accordingly. Concur — Kupferman, J. P., Sullivan, Ross, Carro and Smith, JJ.

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Order, Surrogate’s Court, Queens County (Louis D. Laurino, S.), entered on or about December 23, 1986, which, inter alia, determined that the fair and reasonable value of the services rendered by the attorneys for the executor was $4,500 and directed the return to the estate of all moneys taken as attorneys’ fees in excess of that amount, unanimously modified, on the law and on the facts, to award a counsel fee of $5,888 and, except as thus modified, affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The attorneys representing this estate are the executor and his brother, who practice in a partnership. After a hearing, the Surrogate awarded a counsel fee of $4,500, rather than the $18,110.60 requested, to which the distributees had consented. While we agree with the Surrogate’s finding that much of the time billed as legal work was expended in an executorial capacity and, thus, with the determination to disallow the charges therefor, the time sheets for purely legal work aggregate $5,888 (36.8 hours at $160). The court failed to provide a rationale or calculation as to how it arrived at the figure of $4,500. In the absence of such an explanation, we modify to increase the award accordingly. Concur — Kupferman, J. P., Sullivan, Ross, Carro and Smith, JJ.

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Bluebook (online)

144 A.D.2d 315, 534 N.Y.S.2d 181, 1988 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11982, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-estate-of-richards-nyappdiv-1988.