Opinion ID: 1889209
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Indispensable Party Issue

Text: Defendants contend that the Alabama judgment should be set aside on appeal because of Plaintiff's failure to join William B. Jacob and Gladys B. Wallace as indispensable parties in the instant action. Mr. Jacob is the Mississippi attorney for the estate of Lillian B. Jones, and Gladys B. Wallace is a beneficiary under Ms. Jones's last will and testament. According to Defendants, Mr. Jacob is an indispensable party because the Mississippi chancery court awarded him $5,000 in attorney's fees, and that sum is included within the total judgment rendered by the Alabama court, the subject of this appeal. While the Mississippi court's order mentions Jacob as being entitled to the $5,000, an examination of the opinion illustrates that, as is usual in cases in which attorney's fees are awarded, the award of fees was to the estate of Lillian B. Jones, deceased, and not to Mr. Jacob personally. An award of attorney's fees belongs to the client and not the attorney. See, e.g., Carmichael v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 219 N.W.2d 658, 664 (Iowa 1974); In re Estate of Katz, 40 N.J.Super. 103, 122 A.2d 185, 187 (1956). We find no merit in Appellants' contention that, because the Mississippi judgment awarded an attorney's fee of $5,000, the judgment appealed from in the instant case is due to be reversed for failure of the Plaintiffs to join that lawyer as an indispensable party. Defendants' contention that Gladys B. Wallace is an indispensable party to these proceedings is likewise misplaced. This Alabama action was brought to enforce the Mississippi judgment. The Mississippi action was brought for the benefit of the estate of Lillian B. Jones. All funds recovered are to be paid to the court until the estate is settled and the assets distributed. Accordingly, as maintained by Appellees, the executrix, Doris B. Owens, was the proper party to maintain the Mississippi action. See 7 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1618, at 192 (1972). Moreover, as noted by the Mississippi court, all proper and necessary parties were before the court. Defendants also insist that Gladys B. Wallace should have been joined as a party to the instant proceeding because she is a real party in interest. While Ms. Wallace is a beneficiary of the estate, Rule 17(a) of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure states that [a]n executor ... may sue in his own name without joining with him the party for whose benefit the action is brought. The Mississippi action was brought for the benefit of the estate. Consequently, it was not error for the executrix, Doris B. Owens, to initiate and pursue this action in the absence of Gladys B. Wallace as a party plaintiff. The judgment below is due to be, and it is hereby, affirmed. AFFIRMED. TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX and BEATTY, JJ., concur. SHORES, J., concurs in the result.