Case ID: nj-eq_102/html/0249-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Natalie Wildey Farlee, petitioner-respondent, v. Hart Scudder Farlee, defendant-appellant.
    [Argued October 20tb, 1927.
    Decided February 6th, 1928.]
    A counsel fee of $1,500 for the trial, under a petition for an increase of the allowance to a wife and daughter for maintenance, is excessive; reduced to $500.
    On appeal from the court of chancery.
    
      Mr. Jacob L. Newman (Mr. Lionel P. Kristeller and Mr. Saul J. Zucher, on the brief), for the defendant-appellant.
    
      Mr. John L. Ridley (Mr. James A. Farrell, of the New York bar,, on the brief), for the petitioner-respondent.
   Per Curiam.

The parties to this suit were divorced by a decree of the court of chancery March 23d, 1917. Thereafter a decree for permanent alimony was made under which the petitioner was allowed the annual sum of $720 for the support and maintenance of the petitioner and the minor daughter Natalie Potter Earlee.

The petition was filed to have that allowance increased. The learned vice-chancellor, before whom the case was heard, advised an order directing the defendant to pay the petitioner the annual sum of $3,000 for her support and maintenance, and the further sum of $1,000 for the care, maintenance, education and clothing of the daughter Natalie Potter Earlee. With this part of the order we are satisfied and it is affirmed.

But as to the allowance of a counsel fee of $1,500 to the solicitor of the petitioner, we think it is- excessive — from anything that appears before us in this record. The testimony taken in the case covers twenty-seven pages of the printed book, together with the exhibits of nineteen printed pages. We think a counsel fee of five hundred dollars ($500) is ample.

That part of the order of the court of chancery will be modified and affirmed for $500.

With this modification the order of the court of chancery appealed from will be affirmed.

For affirmance — None.

For reversal — None.

For modification — The Chief-Justice, Trenchard, Parker, Minturn, Kalisch, Black, Katzenbach, Campbell, Lloyd, White, Yah Buskirk, McGlennon, Kays, Hetfield, Dear, JJ. 15.