Hackett's Estate, Matter of

• Decision Date: 15 August 1977
• Docket Number: No. 14112,14112
• Citation: 9 Ill.Dec. 592,51 Ill.App.3d 474,366 N.E.2d 1103
• Parties: , 9 Ill.Dec. 592 In the Matter of the ESTATE of Robert L. HACKETT, Deceased. Charles W. DOTSON, Successor Executor, and Attorney, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Montelle J. GREVE, Martha H. Jones, Genevieve Edwards, Mae Baer, Harold E. Hackett, Carl Hackett, Joyce Archibald, Opal Clapper, Montelle Hackett, Mildred Stephenson and Louise Hackett, who are all objectors to the Report of Sale and Leon Stephenson, Arthur Huser, James R. Huser, Helen Isenhower, Lenore Warren, Ruth Rodenbaugh, Leland Hackett, Effie Stephenson, and Delores Hackett, other Beneficiaries under the Will of Decedent, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 1103

366 N.E.2d 1103

51 Ill.App.3d 474, 9 Ill.Dec. 592

In the Matter of the ESTATE of Robert L. HACKETT, Deceased.

Charles W. DOTSON, Successor Executor, and Attorney, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Montelle J. GREVE, Martha H. Jones, Genevieve Edwards, Mae

Baer, Harold E. Hackett, Carl Hackett, Joyce Archibald, Opal

Clapper, Montelle Hackett, Mildred Stephenson and Louise

Hackett, who are all objectors to the Report of Sale and

Leon Stephenson, Arthur Huser, James R. Huser, Helen

Isenhower, Lenore Warren, Ruth Rodenbaugh, Leland Hackett,

Effie Stephenson, and Delores Hackett, other Beneficiaries

under the Will of Decedent, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 14112.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District.

Aug. 15, 1977.

L. Stanton Dotson, Mattoon, for petitioner-appellant.

Nichols, Jones, McCown, Lincoln & Albin, Frank W. Lincoln, Lemna & Moore, Tuscola, for defendants-appellees; James F. Lemna, Emerson L. Moore, Tuscola, of counsel.

GREEN, Presiding Justice.

This case presents the question of whether a personal representative who is an attorney at law is entitled to compensation for both legal and nonlegal services performed.

This question has been often discussed but seldom litigated in recent years. Early Supreme Court cases hold that the representative is not entitled to compensation for legal services. A few more recent appellate court decisions allow compensation for both types of service. Text writers are not in agreement. (Compare Horner, Probate Practice and Estates, secs. 402 and 758, and James, Illinois Probate Law and Practice, sec. 336.5.) I.S.B.A. Professional Ethics Opinion No. 520 issued October 7, 1975 (64 Ill.B.J. 258) rules that an executor or administrator who is also an attorney at law is entitled to compensation for both. We agree with that opinion and deem it to properly interpret the present law of the state.

The will of Robert L. Hackett was admitted to probate in Douglas County in 1951. He devised 100 acres of farm land to his wife Lillian for life and directed that after her death the land be sold by his executor at public sale and that the net proceeds be distributed to his heirs per stirpes. Lillian Hackett was named and served as executor throughout the original administration of the estate. Charles Dotson was named successor executor and served throughout the original administration as attorney for the executor. The 100 acre tract was listed in the state inheritance tax return as having a value of $42,000. Mr. Dotson received a fee of $4000. The estate was closed in 1952.

Lillian Hackett died in November 1975. On May 10, 1976, Mr. Dotson petitioned the Circuit Court of Douglas County to reopen the estate and for issuance of letters to him as successor executor. The court granted that petition and a subsequent one asking for authority to sell the 100 acres at public sale. The land sold for $440,000. The executor then filed a final report in which he claimed a fee of $15,000 for legal services connected with the reopening of the estate, the sale and the distribution of the proceeds. Defendants, heirs of the testator, objected to the fees. At a hearing on the report and objections, the executor asked leave to amend the report to indicate that he requested compensation for nonlegal services as executor as well as for legal services. The court sustained defendants' objections ruling that the executor was entitled to compensation either for nonlegal services as executor or for legal services but not for both. The court heard evidence as to reasonable fees for legal work and then ordered the executor to amend the report to reduce the fees to $3000 and to make distribution. The executor, Charles Dotson, appeals from that order.

Because of our determination that the executor was entitled to compensation for both legal and nonlegal services, we rule that the court's refusal to allow the amendment requested by the executor and the resultant failure to consider both types of services to be reversible error.

In denying leave to amend, the trial court relied on the early Supreme Court cases of Willard v. Bassett (1861), 27 Ill. 37, and Hough v. Harvey (1873), 71 Ill. 72. In Willard v. Bassett the court affirmed a denial of fees for legal services rendered by an administrator and said:

"The law cannot permit the idea that a person can take the office of executor or administrator as a business, or as a means of making money. It must ever associate with that place, to a certain extent, the idea of benevolence or philanthropy. We must ever assume that whoever takes such a position is actuated by an impulse of generosity and a desire to do good to others, rather than to make it a source of profit to himself. He must not be expected to suffer loss in the discharge of his duties, hence he must be allowed his necessary disbursements, and a reasonable compensation for the time and trouble bestowed upon the business of the estate. But beyond this the court should never go. If he chooses to exercise his professional skill as a lawyer in the business of the estate, that must be considered a gratuity." (27 Ill. 37, 38-39.)

In Hough v. Harvey an executor who was an attorney was sued in his representative capacity in a county other than the one where the estate was being administered. He then sought additional compensation in the probate proceedings for his services rendered in attending court, developing a defense and finding witnesses in the litigation in the other county. The Supreme Court ruled that he was not entitled to this compensation. Citing Willard v. Bassett, the court found the services to be legal in nature and thus not compensable. The court also stated that even if the services were not those of an attorney, no compensation could be allowed for the travels to obtain witnesses because to allow such compensation would encourage other executors to take unnecessary trips. The opinion indicated that if such a trip was necessary, the better practice would be to hire an agent to do it. The opinion followed the theory of Willard v. Bassett that services as a personal representative were charitable in nature and should not enable the representative to obtain financial gain.

No subsequent Supreme Court case has ruled directly upon the question. Nearly 70 years after Hough v. Harvey, the appellate court for the Second District in deciding In re Estate of Edwards (1942), 312 Ill.App. 645, 39 N.E.2d 72, approved an executor's fee which included compensation not only for the ordinary functions of the executor but also for legal services. The court noted that the performance of legal services by the executor saved money for the estate.

In ruling that the rationale of the early Supreme Court cases was not applicable, the appellate court said:

"The holding in the early case of Willard v. Bassett, 27 Ill. 37, . . . that an administrator or executor could not take the office as a business or as a means of making money, but that it was to a certain extent associated with the idea of benevolence or philanthropy, is no longer applicable. In conformity with the customs and necessities of vastly increased business, trade and commerce, it is now recognized as a business, with statutory provisions authorizing banks and trust companies to engage therein, and a provision that anybody so acting shall be allowed reasonable compensation." (312 Ill.App. 645, 650, 39 N.E.2d 72, 74.)

The recent case of In re Estate of Saperstein (1974), 24...