They Only Benefitted the Trustee, Not the Trust, Justifying Fee Request Denial.
The Second District, Division 6, in Waters v. Conkle, Case No. B225166 (2d Dist., Div. 6 June 23, 2011) (unpublished), reminds all of you probate practitioners that extraordinary fees will only be awarded where the attorney’s actions had some benefit for the trust, rather than just benefitting the trustee. In this one, trustee’s attorney lost his fee reimbursement request of $28,431.50, with the lower court determining he had already been paid over $66,000, had not completed activities in line with the trust intent, and had only taken actions to make up for the trustee’s failure to account properly to beneficiaries. Probate courts have special responsibilities to insure that extraordinary fees are reasonable (Donahue v. Donahue, 182 Cal.App.4th 259, 269 (2010)), and no fees are justified when the benefits are only to the trustee rather than to the trust (Estate of Gump, 1 Cal.App.4th 582, 605 (1991)). The appellate court found the fee denial was no abuse of discretion.