Opinion ID: 1247070
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: leonard's and marian's appeals

Text: The appeals of Leonard and Marian raise only one question, namely, whether Abner is entitled to any attorneys' fees at all. 1. There is little dispute in the applicable law. A trustee is entitled to reasonable attorneys' fees, to be paid out of the trust estate, incurred in good faith in defending his administration of the trust. [1] 2. Where a trustee has acted in bad faith or has been guilty of fraud or inexcusable neglect that has caused loss to the estate he may be denied attorneys' fees. [2] 3. While the evidence here shows that the court did find against Abner on a comparatively small item consisting of rebates and commissions retained by him, the court found in favor of Abner on the numerous charges made against him. The one finding against him is in his capacity as managing agent. The court found nothing against him in his capacity as trustee. The court also found that Abner kept these rebates and commissions with full knowledge of the others and without any intention to defraud or deceive them. The court further found that it was a mistake of judgment on his part to do so. While it was improper for Abner either to receive or to retain the commissions on insurance, there is no evidence of bad faith in his doing so, and the trust had accepted these commissions up to the year involved. The court expressly so found. Were that the only charge made against him, it hardly would have been likely that any litigation would have been necessary. A simple instruction from the court would have been sufficient. On the record before us, we think that there is no merit to the contentions of Leonard and Marian that Abner is not entitled to any fees. The order of the court on these appeals is affirmed.