Opinion
November 24, 1943.
January 3, 1944.
Attorney and client — Compensation — Counsel for executors of decedent's estate — Determination of lower court — Appellate review.
1. The allowance of fees to counsel for a decedent's estate depends upon many factors; among them are the size of the estate, the novelty and difficulty of the questions involved, the extent of counsel's labor on the case and the time the labor required, the responsibility assumed by counsel, and his professional standing.
2. In cases involving the allowance of counsel fees, the appellate court will not reverse the findings of the court below in the absence of manifest error.
Argued November 24, 1943.
Before MAXEY, C. J., DREW, LINN, STERN, PATTERSON and STEARNE, JJ.
Appeal, No. 236, Jan. T., 1943, from decree of O. C. Phila. Co., Jan. T., 1930, No. 382, in Estate of John B. Warden, deceased. Decree affirmed.
Audit of account of executrix. Before VAN DUSEN, P. J.
Adjudication filed allowing counsel for accountants a stated fee, less than amount claimed. Exceptions to adjudication by counsel dismissed, before VAN DUSEN, P. J., SINKLER, KLEIN, BOLGER, LADNER and HUNTER, JJ., opinion by BOLGER, J. Exceptant appealed.
Ira Jewell Williams, with him Richard C. Bull, for appellant.
Claude C. Smith, with him Raymond M. Remick, of Saul, Ewing, Remick Harrison, and Duane, Morris Heckscher, for appellees.
The question involved in this appeal is whether the fee of counsel engaged in the case in the court below should be $15,000., as counsel claims, or should be $11,500., as the auditing judge in the court below fixed it.
The allowance of counsel fees in such cases depends upon many factors; among them are the size of the estate, the novelty and difficulty of the questions involved, the extent of counsel's labor on the case and the time the labor required, the responsibility assumed by counsel, and his professional standing.
See Canon 12 of the Professional Ethics of the American Bar Association.
In passing upon questions of fees we have often said in substance that the judges of the court below where the case was litigated are in a better position than we are to pass upon the fairness and justness of the fees of counsel, and that we will not reverse the findings of the court below on such matters unless it is obvious that error has been committed. There is no such manifest error here.
The decree is affirmed at appellant's cost.