Court Opinion

ID: 9761980
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:04:33.210251+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:28.683764
License: Public Domain

WALKER, Justice
(concurring).
I concur in the Court’s judgment, but in my opinion Huff v. Huff, 132 Tex. 540, 124 S.W.2d 327, does not hold that the claim for attorney’s fees and expenses must be established in the original will contest. If it does, the case should be overruled to that extent. The rule now adopted by the Court will not be workable in cases where there is no personal representative of the estate who can be required to observe an order allowing attorney’s fees and expenses rendered by the probate court in the will contest. In the absence of a pending administration, the probate court could not make an order for allowance of attorney’s fees and expenses that would be binding on the heirs. Nor could it make one that would be binding on an independent executor.
It also seems unwise as a practical matter to require that the allowance of attorney’s fees and expenses always be litigated in the context of an adversary will contest. If the interested parties were given the opportunity, the allowance would doubtless be handled on an amicable basis in some cases after resolution of the will contest. This would be quite likely where the expenses of the unsuccessful proponent are obviously reasonable and the personal representative of the estate is one whose personal fortune was not at stake in the will contest. The most that would be required is a simple motion by an administrator and an order of the probate court approving the allowance. Even that would not be necessary when the personal representative is an independent executor.