Court Opinion

ID: 7816187
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 17:36:58.859659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:36.582143
License: Public Domain

George Rose Smith, Associate Justice, dissenting. The attorneys who are now demanding a fee from the estate represented the proponents under a contingent fee contract which would have entitled them to a fee of about $35,000 if the will had been upheld. If, however, the will was declared to be a forgery, as proved to be the case, they would receive nothing. I think the contracting parties evidently intended that the attorneys’ compensation be governed solely by the contingent fee contract. If the validity of the will had been sustained the attorneys would have been entitled to one-third of the estate for their services. 1 am unable to believe that they would have demanded, much less have been entitled to, an additional fee for representing one of their clients in her capacity as administratrix. But the will was found to be a forgery. Since the lawyers were to receive no extra compensation for representing the administratrix if the will had been upheld, it should follow that they receive no such extra compensation if the will be rejected. Otherwise they are in the position of collecting a contractual fee from their clients if they are successful in defending the will and of collecting a non-contractual fee from the appellant, as the sole beneficiary of the estate, if they are unsuccessful. The plain result of this view of the law is to encourage the tender of a forged will in every instance, for its proponents have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Robinson, J., joins in this dissent.