56 / 338
able on
instruments conveying or
transferring
property from a subsidiary to a parent company.
ATTORNEYS' COSTS IN THE U.S.A.
NEW YORK STATE
THE Society on behalf of a member had occasion
recently to make enquiries as to the procedure for
taxation of Attorney's costs in uncontested probate
matters in the State of New York. The following
information obtained as a result of the enquiries is
published as being of interest to members. Section
231-3 of the Surrogate's Court Act provides as
follows :
At any time during the administration of an estate,
and irrespective of the pendency of a particular
proceeding, the Surrogate shall have power to hear
an application for and to fix and determine the
compensation of an attorney for sendees rendered to
an estate or to its representative, or to a devisee,
legatee, distributee or any person interested therein;
or of an attorney who has rendered legal services in
connection with his official duties as an executor,
administrator, testamentary, trustee, or guardian;
or in proceedings to compel the delivery of papers
or funds in the hands of such attorney.
Such proceedings shall be instituted by petition of
a representative of the estate, or a person interested,
or an attorney who his rendered services.
Notice of the application shall be given in such
manner as the Surrogate may direct. The Surrogate
may direct payment therefor from the estate generally
or from the funds in the hands of the representative
belonging to any legatee, devisee, distributee or
person interested therein.
In the event that any such attorney has already
received or been paid a sum in excess of the fair value
of his services as thus determined, the Surrogate
shall have power to direct him to refund such excess.
There is no fee schedule in the Courts in New
York.
In some cases the local bar association es
tablishes what is called a " Minimum Fee Schedule"
which has no binding force, but which will furnish
some guidance. For instance, such a schedule has
been adopted by the Bar Association in Queen's
County, one of the Counties in the City of New York,
and also by Nassau County, which is not in the city
but an adjoining County. However, these schedules
do not cover a contested probate. They do suggest
a minimum fee for an uncontested probate which is
more or less routine, in which the percentage is
roughly 4-5% of the gross estate where the estate is
in the §20,000 range. For a contested matter, the
usual considerations of time
spent, difficulties
involved,
the nature of
the services, amount
involved, professional standing, and results obtained
are applicable.
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST
UNQUALIFIED PERSON ACTING
FOR HEIR CHASER
ACTING on evidence supplied by a member on
behalf of a client who is a beneficiary in an American
estate, the Society instituted proceedings in the
Dublin Atetropolitan Court against the defendant,
who is a civil servant, for a contravention of Section,^
58 (i) (b), of the Solicitors Act 1954. Under thej|
section it is an offence for an unqualified person, fot|
or in expectation of fee or reward, to procure or tol
attempt to procure the execution by an Irish citizen,!
of a document relating to real or personal estate
situated outside the State and the United Kingdom
or any legal proceeding actual or in contemplation
in relation to such property. Under the document
executed by
the beneficiary at
the defendant's
request, she undertook to pay one third of the sum-'
received by her to the American heir chaser for his;
sendees. Subsequent to the institution of proceed-!
ings the defendant admitted the offence and gave an
undertaking not to repeat it and the Society allowed
the proceedings to be struck out on receiving a full J"
indemnity against the costs.
SOLICITORS' BENEVOLENT
ASSOCIATION
RESOLUTION of Metropolitan Directors of Solicitors';^
Benevolent Association held on ist October, 1958,"^
at the Solicitors' Buildings, Four Courts.
The
following Resolution was proposed by
Mr. Dineen B. Gilmore and seconded by Mr. Patrick
R. Boyd and duly passed unanimously :
RESOLVED :
that the Directors of the Solicitors'
Benevolent Association having received with great
regret the resignation of their Chairman Mr. Richard
A. O'Brien hereby record their appreciation of his
conduct of the business of the Association as
Chairman and of his untiring efforts during the
period of 21 years in office to advance the charitable
objects for which the Association was founded.
THE SUPREME COURT
WILLIAM L. DUGGAN, APPELLANT.
THE INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND,
RESPONDENTS.
On November i4th the Supreme Court delivered J
judgment allowing the appeal of Mr. William L.
Duggan against an order of the Chief Justice by|
which the Chief Justice refused to discharge a|
direction from the Society to the Registrar of8