Court Opinion

ID: 9851875
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:20:51.74253+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:18.478918
License: Public Domain

BRADY, Justice.
In enacting N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4, the General Assembly provided:
At any time that a dependent spouse would be entitled to alimony pursuant to G.S. 50-16.3A, or postseparation support pursuant to G.S. 50-16.2A, the court may, upon application of such spouse, enter an order for reasonable counsel fees for the benefit of such spouse, to be paid and secured by the supporting spouse in the same manner as alimony.
N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4 (2005) (emphasis added). Because any counsel fees ordered paid to defendant’s pro bono counsel would not be for the benefit of defendant, we hold she was not entitled to counsel fees pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.
BACKGROUND
Donald J. Patronelli (plaintiff) and Carrie Patronelli (defendant) married in 1997 and separated in 2001. On 14 August 2001, plaintiff filed a complaint seeking child custody, child support, and equitable distribution. Defendant counterclaimed and was awarded primary physical custody of the child, child support, postseparation support, and alimony. Pertinent to this appeal, the trial court set a hearing on the issues of alimony and related counsel fees. After the hearing, the trial court denied defendant’s request for an award of counsel fees, finding in a written order:
The defendant is represented on a pro bono basis by her counsel through the Volunteer Lawyers Program. The defendant has an arrangement with her counsel that her counsel will not charge her any fees for representation of her in this matter. Defendant’s counsel proffered to the court that he had incurred expenses and fees in the amount of approximately $2,500.00 in bringing the defendant’s permanent alimony case to trial. However, the defendant has not incurred any of these expenses *630as she is not personally liable to her counsel for the same. As such, there is no basis for an award of attorney’s fees in this matter.
Based upon this finding of fact, the trial court concluded as a matter of law: “The defendant has not incurred any attorney’s fees under N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4, and thus her claim for attorney’s fees should be denied.”
Defendant appealed to the Court of Appeals, assigning error to the trial court’s conclusion she was not entitled to counsel fees under N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s order, and Judge Wynn filed a dissent asserting defendant was entitled to counsel fees. Defendant appealed as of right to this Court.
ANALYSIS
Pro bono publico legal services are provided for the public good without compensation. See Black’s Law Dictionary 1240-41 (8th ed. 2004) (“Being or involving uncompensated legal services performed esp. for the public good.”). The American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct recommend each attorney perform at least fifty hours of pro bono service per year, with the majority of those services provided “without fee or expectation of fee.” See Model Rules of Prof’l Conduct R. 6.1 (2003). It is commendable when an attorney, although under no compulsion to do so, agrees to represent a client of little means with no expectation of a fee. Law is one of the three learned professions, the others being medicine and the clergy. See Letter IV from J. Orton Smith to A Solicitor Commencing Business in The Lawyer and His Profession 35, 46 (London, V. & R. Stevens & Sons, S. Sweet & W. Maxwell 1860). Pro bono representation exemplifies the difference between a trade and a profession. As one writer put it, in a trade “a man has simply to consider ... the best way of securing large profits to himself.” Id. However, “a man should enter [a profession] with the consciousness that his own profit, though his immediate object, is to be a secondary consideration, his first being always the advantage of those who place their confidence in him.” Id.
Defendant spends much of her brief arguing that the standard for awarding fees under N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4 is not whether counsel fees were incurred by the dependent spouse but whether any fees awarded would be for the benefit of such spouse. In this argument, *631defendant objects to the lower courts’ “engrafting” into N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4 the requirement that counsel fees must have been incurred by the dependent spouse. We do not decide, as did the Court of Appeals and the trial court, whether a dependent spouse must incur counsel fees before an award would be proper, because in this case we are unpersuaded that any fees ordered would have been for the benefit of defendant.
“When the language of a statute is clear and without ambiguity, it is the duty of this Court to give effect to the plain meaning of the statute, and judicial construction of legislative intent is not required.” Diaz v. Div. of Soc. Seros., 360 N.C. 384, 387, 628 S.E.2d 1, 3 (2006). The language of N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4 is clear and without ambiguity. Therefore, we will give effect to its plain meaning. The statute permits a trial court to award “reasonable counsel fees” if, among other things, the award is for the benefit of the dependent spouse. There is no provision in N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4 which would allow a trial court to award counsel fees to a dependent spouse unless such award is for that spouse’s benefit.
In the case sub judice, defendant would have not benefitted in any way from an award of counsel fees. Defendant was not obligated in any manner to her counsel for professional services provided pursuant to their agreement. Additionally, by the time the fees were requested, defendant’s case was for the most part completed, and therefore no fee award would have assisted in financing further litigation. Simply put, only defendant’s counsel stood to benefit from any fees awarded by the trial court; and there is no statutory authority permitting a trial court to enter an order of counsel fees for the benefit of counsel. See N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4 (stating that “the court may . . . enter an order for reasonable counsel fees for the benefit of such spouse”).
We are unpersuaded that such a result is impermissible because it would allow plaintiff to reap a windfall from his wife’s choice of counsel. Such an argument does not take into account the purpose of the statute, which is to prevent requiring “a dependent spouse to meet the expenses of litigation through the unreasonable depletion of her separate estate where her separate estate is considerably smaller than that of the supporting spouse . ...” Clark v. Clark, 301 N.C. 123, 137, 271 S.E.2d 58, 68 (1980); see also Hudson v. Hudson, 299 N.C. 465, 473-74, 263 S.E.2d 719, 724-25 (1980) (discussing the purpose of domestic fee-shifting statutes). The purpose of N.C.G.S. § 50-16.4 is not to punish a supporting spouse for having a larger estate than that *632of the dependent spouse. Rather, it is to level the playing field so that both parties have suitable representation.
Because we are unpersuaded that any counsel fees awarded to defendant in this matter would have been for her benefit, the trial court was without statutory authority to enter such an order. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in denying defendant’s request for counsel fees. Therefore, the decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.