Court Opinion

ID: 9860695
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:29:49.778262+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:26:31.416330
License: Public Domain

PIVARNIK, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur with the majority opinion that the mandate order entered by the Special Judge was proper. I would therefore vote to affirm the trial judge in reaching his conclusion that the Hancock County Judge had authority to mandate payment of the $1,240.00 to his employees as well as the need of the trial court to ward off a clear and present danger to the court's proper function.
I am concerned, however, about the amount of the attorney fees charged and ordered paid to the attorneys representing the trial judge in this mandate hearing. The attorney fees were almost three times the amount of payment mandated in the first place. This alone would not be evidence of impropriety if the work done would reasonably require the time and effort to justify such fees. I fail to see, however, how competent attorneys representing a trial judge in such a simple matter as this can justify nearly ninety (90) hours of work, requiring a fee of $8,800.00. The only support given by the attorneys for their fee is their own affidavit that the attorneys themselves spent sixty-six and one-half (66.5) hours in their efforts, and the clerks hired by them spent an additional twenty-three (28) hours.
As I interpret the record, the time in court actually presenting the issues covered only one day. Apparently we can presume, because the record does not show clearly, that nearly ninety (90) hours was spent preparing for that one day hearing. The records involved, showing the budget procedures and the operations of the court and its employees, are certainly very simple to obtain as they are present in the office and in the possession of the judge. Furthermore, the cause is tried by a trial judge who is very familiar with these matters and procedures since they are part of his daily concern. The only additional work I can see is the gathering of information from a half-dozen other auditors in the neighboring counties to obtain similar materials from them. The law involved in the subject is certainly not complex. The parties cite only a couple of cases and the law can be totally and clearly understood by an attorney familiarizing himself with these rather recent opinions, as was actually done by the attorneys here.
I realize it is difficult for us to put ourselves in the position of making factual judgments which conflict with those made by the trial judge; however, the majority opinion does hold that the attorney fees are reasonable and if we are going to do that, *1193then we are going to have to believe it is so. The taxpayers of the county will be required to pay these fees, as well as the $1,240.00 and all of the other salaries of the people employed by the courts. Courts, of course, should be required to pay a reasonable fee for lawyers who perform services in their behalf. This whole lawsuit however, involves a question of whether $1,240.00 was a reasonable amount to be paid for services of court employees and I think our responsibilities require us to equally seruti-nize attorney fees that I find to be unreasonable. I, therefore, would dissent to approval of the amount of attorney fees and remand that issue to the trial court to hear further evidence on the subject and set a reasonable fee for the work performed by the attorneys.