Single Probate Asset Cannot Be "Double Dipped" In Single-Asset LLC Context.
Bock v. Superior Court, Case No. B267174 (2d Dist., Div. 2 Mar. 6, 2017) (unpublished) is a case which involves ordinary compensation for probate attorneys representing personal representatives of a probate estate under Probate Code section 10810–calculated on a sliding scale based on the value of the probate estate. The problem here was what was the value of the estate for compensation purposes.
The trial judge determined that the probate attorney was requesting fees based on the inflated value of the estate by double counting what was effectively a single asset, eventually awarding a much lesser value and much less ordinary fee compensation. The appellate court agreed with this analysis.
The problem here was that the probate estate was a single real estate asset with a certain valuation. However, the bootstrap argument by appellants was that LLC membership interest only had a membership interest in the LLC divorced from the underlying real estate asset valuation, such that more value was justified. Didn't work—the real property was the only real asset, such that inclusion of anything else was an improper double counting for ordinary compensation "value of the asset" purposes.