Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-02-27
SUPREME COURT DECIDES AN AP-
PEAL SUIT SUBMITTED
TO IT.
IN THE MATTER
OF ATTORNEYS FEES.
In Relation to the Estate OF the Late
J. F. Kelly-Rules It a Matter of
Personal Agreement.

The remittitur in the matter of the ap-
pea, of Mary Ellen Kelly from an order
made by Judge Lindsay in connection
with the fee of $1,000 charged by Attor-
ney Thompson Campbell for services AS
counsel in the estate of John F. Kelly has
been received from the supreme court.
The decision of the supreme body knocks
Judge I.indsay's decision clear over the
ropes and leaves it without leg upon
which to stand.
When John f. Kelly died a few years
ago his wife was made adminiStra triX OF
an estate left by him. which was valued
at close to 100000. She employed
Thompson Campbell to act as her attor-
ney in settling the affairs and paid him
$1,000. When the administrators filed her
final amount in court last June there
was nothing said about more fees for the
attorney. and the latter objected to the
account on the ground that his services
We're reasonably worth $4,000 and he had
been paid only 81 800. He asked the court
over which Judge Lindsay presided TO
amend the final account so as to include
the balance of his fee of $4,000 and on
July IS the Judge made the amendment.
Donlon G. Forestell. who appeared as le-
gal advisers for Mrs. Kelly, were not sat
isied with the amendment and question
ed the authority of Judge Lindsay to
make It. They therefore appealed to the
supreme court for relief and got 1t. In
parsing upon the case the supreme body
in part says:
..The re,atrix in her brief submits
twelve reasons why the order of the dis
no onr1,l1a1 The nYln-
cipal points relied upon are the want of
jurisdiction lin the district court or the
Judge thereof to order the payment by
the Administrators of a demand made oy
an attorney for services alleged to have
been rendered TO the administrators at
her request in the matter of the settle
ment of the affairs of an estate: that Il
contract for such services is private
matter between the Administrative and
her attorney to be settled between them.
and if any amount be paid by such ad-
ministratrix it may be reported in her
account of administration for allowance
to her. Counsel for relatrix further re-
lies upon the allegation that no contract
was made by and between the admins
tratrix and her attorney as to the amount
to be paid for his alleged services and
that no agreement was made to the eff
feet that he should receive such an
amount as the court might fix.
This cas- has been submitted to this
court upon the theory thatit is proper
case for a writ of review and has been
so treated by counsel for all parties. The
language of the order as amended July
49, 1900. is not as clear as it might be, but
we interpret it to mean that the district
court on June 9 1900, found $500 due
Thompson Campbell and ordered the adj
ministratriX to amend her final account
and divert 5000 from the funds of the
estate and hold it for the use of Mr..
Campbell although there is no positive
direction to pay it over to him. We
consider the order void for the reason
that the employment of counsel and the
payment for his services was matter
of personal and private agreement be-
tween her and counsel to be reported tc
the court as any other expense in course
of administration for the allowance OF
disalloWance of the court IF the ad-
ministratrix refused, as she did, to pay
the sum or any sum for counsel fees annd
had not contracted with the counsel to
abide by any findings of the court as tc
the amount if any. to be paid counsel
then the court had no power to in any
wise order her to include any sum OF
money in her accounts as due to such
counsel or to segregate and set apart
anv sum from the funds of the estate fol
the use oc counsel and to amend her fina
account by including such allowance ir
it,