Matter of Cortez

2017 NY Slip Op 2420, 148 A.D.3d 1146, 49 N.Y.S.3d 307

Opinion

In a probate proceeding in which Lois M. Rosenblatt, Public Administrator of Queens County, as administrator of the estate of Dora Maria Carriel Cortez, also known as Dora Maria Carriel, petitioned to determine the validity of a lien against the decedent’s estate for attorney’s fees, Walden Terrace, Inc., appeals from a decree of the Surrogate’s Court, Queens County (Kelly, S.), dated February 26, 2015, which, upon a decision of the same court dated January 22, 2015, fixed the attorney’s fees payable by the estate in the sum of $5,000.

Ordered that the decree is affirmed, with costs.

“The determination of what constitutes a reasonable attorney’s fee is a matter within the sound discretion of the Surrogate’s Court” (Matter of Cincotta, 139 AD3d 1058, 1059 [2016]). “The Surrogate is in the best position to assess and consider the necessary factors in fixing and determining an attorney’s fee, such as the . . . time, effort and skill actually required and time expended” (Matter of Piterniak, 38 AD3d 780, 781 [2007]).

Under the circumstances of this case, including the small size of the estate, the Surrogate’s Court did not improvidently exercise its discretion in fixing the attorneys’ fees payable by the estate to Walden Terrace, Inc., a creditor of the estate, in the sum of $5,000.

Hall, J.P., Austin, Sgroi and Connolly, JJ., concur.