Opinion
No. 19762. Department Two.
March 18, 1926.
EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS (160) — ACCOUNTING — COUNSEL FEES. Under Rem. Comp. Stat., § 1528, an allowance to an executor who was himself an attorney, for the fees of an attorney whom he employed to assist him, is properly limited to the legal services which it was "necessary" for him to incur.
Appeal from a judgment of the superior court for Spokane county, Huneke, J., entered October 9, 1925, upon an order fixing attorney fees. Affirmed.
J. Webster Hancox and F.A. McMaster, for appellant.
Stephens Jack, for respondent.
Evan Evans died in October, 1924, leaving a will in which he appointed an attorney as the executor of his estate, which consisted of cash, bonds, stocks and mortgages. The executor employed another attorney to act for him in the settlement of the estate. On the settlement of the final account and distribution, the executor was allowed $3,500 as his fee, and his attorney was allowed $550. This appeal is based upon the refusal to allow a greater amount to the attorney for his services.
[1] Under § 1528, Rem. Comp. Stat., the executor or administrator of an estate, even though he may be an attorney, may employ an attorney to assist in the settlement of the estate, provided "it is necessary." An examination of the record in this case is convincing that the allowance made to the attorney is sufficient to cover all the services which it was necessary to be performed by any one other than the executor himself.
The judgment is affirmed.