Opinion ID: 1870849
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: did the chancellor err in failing to award mrs. craft $45,841.25 in attorney's fees?

Text: The chancellor awarded Mrs. Craft $2,500 in attorney's fees for defending the petition to modify. She claims that $45,841.25 should have been awarded, since it was supported by evidence and there was no evidence to controvert the testimony showing her attorney's fees. Many times this Court has stated the ground rules for the award of attorney's fees. See McKee v. McKee, 418 So.2d 764 (Miss. 1982); Kergosien v. Kergosien, 471 So.2d 1206 (Miss. 1985). [W]e set forth the criteria for gauging the appropriate amount of attorney's fees in a divorce proceedings: (1) A sum sufficient to secure one competent attorney is the criteria to be utilized; (2) The fee depends on consideration of, in addition to relative financial ability of the parties, the skill and standing of attorney employed; (3) Nature of case and novelty and difficulty of questions at issue, as well as degree of responsibility involved in management of the case, time and labor required, usual and customary charge in the community, and the preclusion of other employment by attorney due to acceptance of the case. Kergosien at 1212. We note, however, that both McKee and Kergosien were actions for divorce. This cause is a modification, where the rule is slightly different. We draw attention to our decision in Robinson v. Robinson, 112 Miss. 224, 72 So. 923 (1916). Robinson was also a modification. Justice Stevens, speaking for the Court, succinctly stated our law and stated it so well that we will quote it here in toto: The allowance of alimony is justified by the natural obligation of the husband, as the bread winner of the family, to support his wife. If there is no legal marriage of the parties, there is no legal obligation on the husband for this support. Reed v. Reed, 85 Miss. 126, 37 South. 642. The parties hereto were divorced in the year 1910, and are now in the eyes of the law strangers one to the other. The petition which appellant filed in the court below, and which prompted the allowance of the attorney's fee complained of, was not a petition for a divorce, but one purely and simply for the custody of the children. It was the same issue that is frequently presented by habeas corpus. At the time it was presented, appellant had been freed of the primary moral and legal obligation to contribute to his wife's support and, without a statute justifying it, the court had no authority to award solicitor's fees in this case, and his action in so doing constituted error. Not only was there an absence of those obligations imposed by the marriage ties, but appellee in her very motion shows that she has a separate estate derived from the husband as a part of the gross sum awarded as permanent alimony. Our court has expressly held that this constitutes a settlement between the husband and the wife as to the extent of the husband's duty to contribute to her maintenance and support, and that the decree awarding a lump sum as permanent alimony is final after the term at which it is rendered. Guess v. Smith, 100 Miss. 457, 56 South. 166, Ann.Cas. 1914A, 300. It may be that the circumstances of this case suggested to the learned chancellor that appellant should be chivalrous enough to employ counsel for both parties; that in again entering the open door of the court, he should be considerate enough of his former wife to pay the admission fee of both and in doing so to adopt the pay-as-you-enter system. We ourselves would promptly yield to this suggestion if there was any legal basis at all for it. But just why appellee should have thought of such a demand is a matter of speculation, unless her memory of her former days and the marriage obligations that once existed gives a touch of reality to the familiar couplet: You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round it still. 72 So. 923-24. On this record it was established that Mrs. Craft did have a separate estate. It was further testified by counsel for Mrs. Craft from the witness stand that Mrs. Craft was able to pay the legal fees. Once this testimony was given, the reasonableness of the fee charged by her attorneys became of no moment as she had not cleared the first hurdle to determine that she would be entitled to fees at all. It is further pointed out that this Court has stated in Walters v. Walters, 383 So.2d 827 (Miss. 1980), that the matter of determining attorney's fees in divorce cases is largely entrusted to the sound discretion of the trial court and the award must be fair and just to all concerned after it has been determined that the legal work being compensated was reasonably required and necessary. Again, Walters discusses attorney's fees in a divorce. Under our law and the facts presented on this record, Mrs. Craft was not entitled to attorney's fees in any sum in this action. However, counsel for Mr. Craft makes no point of the $2500 attorney's fee awarded by the chancellor and has filed no cross-appeal complaining of its award. We, therefore, affirm the chancellor in his award of $2500 and find no merit to the assignments of error by Mrs. Craft.