Sproul Estate

17 Pa. D. & C.2d 718, 1959 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 208
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Allegheny County
DecidedJanuary 21, 1959
Docketno. 5137 of 1948
StatusPublished

This text of 17 Pa. D. & C.2d 718 (Sproul Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Allegheny County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sproul Estate, 17 Pa. D. & C.2d 718, 1959 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 208 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1959).

Opinion

Rahauser, J.,

The account filed by the trustee in this estate included counsel fees and expenses incident to a foreign attachment proceeding in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. The attaching creditor has excepted to these credits, averring that the allowance of such counsel fees and expenses was a matter for decision by the court of com[719]*719mon pleas which had jurisdiction of the attachment proceeding.

Exceptant cites three statutes dealing with the right of a garnishee to counsel fees. The first of these statutes, the Act of April 22,1863, P. L. 527,12 PS §2999, applies: “Where . . . the garnishee, after issue

joined therein, shall be found to have in his possession, or control, no real or personal property of the defendant, nor to owe him any debt, other than such property, or debts, as shall have been already admitted by the plea or answers of the garnishee . . . then, and in either such case, the garnishee shall he entitled, in addition to the costs already allowed by law, to a reasonable counsel fee, out of the property in his or their hands, to be determined and taxed in case of dispute, by the court, or by some person appointed for that purpose.”

Exceptant avers that this statute is not applicable to the instant case, for the reason that the garnishee did not admit that the funds in its hands were subject to the attachment. However, where the garnishees in good faith and under the advice of counsel made a defense, but the jury and court decided against them, it was held that the costs would not be imposed upon the garnishees, but they were allowed only $50 out of the funds for counsel fees: Haller v. Regar, 11 Lane. 145.

In the light of the last cited case the garnishee in the instant case might be allowed counsel fees by the court of common pleas, although substantial counsel fees could not he awarded there on the basis of that case. This Act of April 22, 1863, P. L. 527, does not purport to cover expressly the rights of a trustee-garnishee, to costs and counsel fees, where it defends in good faith but has judgment entered against it.

The second of these statutes, the Act of June 11, 1885, P. L. 107, 12 PS §3000, authorizes the recovery [720]*720of a reasonable counsel fee, not exceeding $10, from plaintiff in the attachment proceeding. It has been stated that this act is applicable only where garnishee has no property belonging to defendant in its possession and it is also apparently limited to cases where no appearance is entered for garnishee: Joseph Melnick Building & Loan Association, to use, v. Melnick, 23 D. & C. 548. Exceptant concedes that this statute is not applicable to the instant case.

The third of the statutes cited by exceptant, thé Act of April 29, 1891, P. L. 35, 12 PS §3001, is the one which exceptant maintains requires the matter of costs and counsel fees on the attachment to be decided by the court of common pleas. This statute reads as follows:

“Where, in any attachment, attachment execution, foreign attachment, or scire facias or foreign attachment issued out of any court of record in this state, an appearance by attorney shall be, or shall have been entered by any garnishee or garnishees therein, each said garnishee so appearing shall be entitled to recover from the plaintiff, in addition to the costs already allowed by law upon any discontinuance or other final disposition thereof, prior to answers filed, a counsel fee of at least ten dollars, to be taxed as part of the costs, and to be determined in case of dispute by the court .” (Italics supplied.)

It should be noted that this statute authorizes the garnishee to recover from plaintiff certain costs and a counsel fee, to be taxed as part of the costs. This section was designed as a supplement to the Act of April 22,1863, P.,L. 527, hereinbefore referred to, and specifically authorizes the garnishee to recover from plaintiff certain costs and a reasonable counsel fee. It does not specifically refer to collection of costs and expenses out of the fund nor does it purport to give the court of common pleas exclusive jurisdiction where a trustee-[721]*721garnishee seeks costs and counsel fees out of the trust funds in its possession. Exceptant cites Getz v. Smith, 1 Dist. R. 123, wherein the court of common pleas declined to fix the garnishee’s counsel fee in the attachment proceeding’s where the funds in its hands exceeded plaintiff’s claim, and. distinguishes that case from the instant one because plaintiff’s claim in the instant case exceeds the amount in the hands of the garnishee. However, the case does indicate that the counsel fees due the garnishee need not be fixed in the attachment proceeding. It should be noted that the cases are not in accord on this matter. See The Brunswick-Balke Collender Company v. Brown, 19 Phila. 455, a decision of the Court of Common Pleas No. 1 of Philadelphia County which is contrary to Getz v. Smith, supra.

To summarize, the statutes relating to the award of costs and counsel fees to a garnishee in an attachment proceeding do not specifically relate to a case in which the garnishee is a trustee. They do not provide that the costs and counsel fees incident to the attachment proceeding must be fixed by the common pleas court in the attachment proceeding and do not purport to cover all fact situations in which a trustee-garnishee may find itself. While a trustee-garnishee is entitled to the benefits of these statutes, they do not purport to restrict such a fiduciary to the remedies therein provided, and he may always look to the orphans’ court to reimburse him for proper expenditures and to fix his just compensation.

The right of the trustee to indemnity for expenses is set out in A. L. I. Restatement of the Law of Trusts §244, as follows:

“Except as otherwise provided by the terms of the trust, the trustee is entitled to indemnity out of the trust estate for expenses properly incurred by him in the administration of the trust.”

[722]*722The duty of the trustee to defend actions is well set forth in A. L. I. Restatement of the Law of Trusts §178, as follows:

“The trustee is under a duty to the beneficiary to defend actions which may result in a loss to the trust estate, unless under all the circumstances it is reasonable not to make such defense.”

Comment “a” to said §178 reads as follows:

“a. Duty to Appeal. If an action is brought by a third person against the trustee and the trustee loses, he is under a duty to the beneficiary to appeal to a higher court, if under all the circumstances it is unreasonable not to appeal.”

The error of exceptant lies in his attempt to treat the trustee like any other garnishee. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania took a contrary view in Kutz v. Nolan, 224 Pa. 262, 265, where it said:

“A garnishee who is a trustee under a valid deed of trust is not a mere stakeholder, nor simply a debtor or one who has in his possession the property of the defendant. He has possession of the property by virtue of his legal title thereto. He is charged with active duties with regard to it and is responsible not only to the defendant, but to the other beneficiaries named in the deed of trust. It is, therefore, incumbent upon him to preserve and protect the property for all the beneficiaries and to administer it strictly in compliance with the terms of the trust.

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Related

Heyl Estate
43 A.2d 130 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1945)
Kutz v. Nolan
73 A. 555 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 Pa. D. & C.2d 718, 1959 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sproul-estate-paorphctallegh-1959.