Court Opinion

ID: 9646728
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:09:18.514311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:41.172248
License: Public Domain

LIPEZ, Judge,
dissenting:
In my judgment, the majority’s use of the cost of the life annuity is an improper basis for determination of the value of the minor’s settlement. Its cost is simply a bargaining matter between the defendant and an insurance company, with which the minor is not involved. His sole concern is the benefits it will produce for him during his lifetime; and it is these benefits, resulting from counsel’s effort, which serve as the basis for counsel fees. The present value of these benefits has long been determined by actuarial tables. *632That is precisely what was done and nothing in this record impugns their use herein.
The trial judge, who was involved in the settlement and its approval, heard the petition to modify. He found that the settlement proposal, including the counsel fees, had been carefully explained to the Johnsons; that it adequately met the needs of the minor; that the counsel fees were both fair and reasonable in the light of the amount of settlement, and therefore denied the petition. His findings come within the wide discretionary area confided to the trial judge in approving counsel fees. It is not our function, absent an abuse of that discretion, to substitute our judgment. No such abuse has been shown here.
I therefore dissent.