Opinion ID: 75761
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Award of fees

Text: 28 We review an award of fees for abuse of discretion; nevertheless, that standard of review still allows us to closely scrutinize questions of law decided by the district court in reaching a fee award. Camden I Condominium Ass'n, Inc. v. Dunkle, 946 F.2d 768, 770 (11th Cir.1991). The district court did not abuse its discretion by awarding Guardian fees to be paid from Waldo's estate. As the district court pointed out and as noted by the Contingent Legatees, the Children were necessary parties to any final judgment, and any final judgment that did not include them as litigants with adequate representation would have been in jeopardy. Furthermore, the Contingent Legatees, who now complain, were the ones who requested that the court appoint a Guardian to provide proper representation for the Children's interests in this litigation. Thus, the need for a Guardian clearly outweighs any interest in the minor depletion of the interpled estate. 29 We find, however, that the district court did abuse its discretion in awarding attorney fees from Waldo's estate. By statute, the award of attorney fees is allowed if the court finds that an attorney or party has brought an action that lacked substantial justification, which means it is substantially frivolous or groundless. O.C.G.A. § 9-15-14(b). The district court's justification for the award of fees was that it was or should have been clear to all parties that since Mr. Pennington was a lawyer that there could be some blurring of Mr. Pennington's role as a guardian ad litem and lawyer ... [and] it is unreasonable and unnecessary to attempt to split hairs ... with regards to the guardian's arguably dual role `in light of the parties' agreement that Mr. Pennington serve as guardian ad litem. R5-230 at 5-6. However, after reviewing the record, we find that the fees are not so intertwined that they could not be calculated separately. Moreover, a review of the services actually rendered shows that Pennington was awarded compensation not only for legal services performed on behalf of the Children, but also for legal services performed on behalf of Blanchard, Martha and Charles. Thus, we remand this matter to the district court for a computation of the fees due to be awarded Pennington for his services as Guardian, to be paid from the corpus of Waldo's estate.