Much of Time Was On Behalf of the Trustee In His Individual Capacity.
In the probate area, a trustee’s recovery of reasonable counsel fees for defending against a beneficiary’s claims is reimbursable if they are incurred in good faith and if they are for the benefit of the trust rather than the trustee individually. (Whittlesey v. Aiello, 104 Cal.App.4th 1221, 1227, 1230 (2002); Donahue v. Donahue, 182 Cal.App.4th 259, 269 (2010).)
These principles justified a probate judge only awarding a former trustee $27,256 out of requested $77,415.80 trustee/attorney’s fees in Hall v. McBride, Case No. H037941 (6th Dist. Apr. 24, 2014) (unpublished).
Trustee’s real problem was the failure to surmount the abuse of discretion standard relating to fee awards. Although trustee seemed to be doing well at the start, a new judge viewed with displeasure mounting fee requests and cut them unlike the predecessor judge. Many, many requested fees were reduced greatly because the requests involved civil harassment/elder abuse disputes advanced only against the trustee in his individual capacity. The reduced fee award was affirmed on appeal given the leeway granted to probate judges to “do equity” in crafting fee orders.