Court Opinion

ID: 9657641
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:33:02.803776+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:47.190144
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(special concurrence).
I fully concur in the opinion of the court. I write separately to suggest the need for a clearer standard in deciding the propriety of litigation fees incurred by a personal representative in estate matters.
As a beginning we should recognize the benefit to the estate is an elusive element and often is not a satisfactory guide for deciding the propriety of litigation. In many instances-, a personal representative’s fiduciary duty requires that claimants be put to their proof irrespective of whether the benefits of that action will inure to the benefit of a particular distributee or claimant rather than the estate as a whole.
Secondly, in considering the propriety of litigation expenses, we should recognize that a personal representative is empowered to engage in litigation under Iowa Code section 633.81. This empowerment necessarily carries with it the right to hire counsel. If the decision to litigate is reasonable considering the fiduciary role of the personal representative, then the fact that (a) the fiduciary’s litigating position favors one set of distribu-tees over another, or (b) the fiduciary’s attorney fees will disproportionately reduce the share of certain estate distributees does not ordinarily justify either a reduction of the attorney fees otherwise reasonably incurred or shifting payment of those fees from the general assets of the estate to a litigating distributee.1
In those instances when it is shown that a personal representative has engaged in a breach of fiduciary duty by improperly pur*159suing litigation, the remedy of the objecting parties should ordinarily be a direct surcharge against the personal representative rather than a reduction in attorney fees that are reasonable in amount based upon the services actually performed.
ANDREASEN, J., joins this special concurrence.

. This shifting occurred in In re Estate of Roggentien, 445 N.W.2d 388 (Iowa App.1989), and, as a consequence, the lawyers were directed to look for payment from persons other than the entity that hired them. This is not a satisfactory solution.