Security Nat. Bank & Trust Co. v. Willim

• Decision Date: 01 July 1969
• Docket Number: No. 12793,12793
• Citation: 168 S.E.2d 555,153 W.Va. 299
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: SECURITY NATIONAL BANK & TRUST CO., etc., Trustee under Last Will and Testament of Caroline C. Hughes, Deceased v. Eugenia Woodward WILLIM et al., etc., Charles P. Mead, Attorney, etc., et al. and Ronald W. Kasserman, Attorney, etc., et al.

Page 555

168 S.E.2d 555

153 W.Va. 299

SECURITY NATIONAL BANK & TRUST CO., etc., Trustee under Last Will and Testament of Caroline C. Hughes, Deceased v. Eugenia Woodward WILLIM et al., etc., Charles P. Mead Attorney, etc., et al. and Ronald W. Kasserman Attorney, etc., et al.

No. 12793.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted May 6, 1969.

Decided July 1, 1969.

Syllabus by the Court

1. When a court of this State properly assumes jurisdiction under the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, Chapter 55, Article 13, of the Code, as amended, and, pursuant to Section 4 of that Article, declares the rights of parties in the administration of a trust, or of the estate of a decedent, that court also has the authority to award Proper attorneys' fees in the same manner as if the action had been a civil action which prior to the adoption of the Rules of Civil Procedure would have been denominated as one in equity.

2. 'In the absence of a valid contract of employment an allowance of fees to an attorney, payable out of the estate of a decedent, can only be justified upon a showing of services beneficial to the estate, or necessary to its settlement, as distinguished from services performed for a client presenting a claim against the estate.' Syl., Beuter v. Beuter, 122 W.Va. 103, 7 S.E.2d 505.

3. The services of an attorney cannot be rewarded by fees paid out of an estate where such attorney has represented litigants who sought to recover funds from an estate in a purely adversary capacity.

4. 'Except in rare instances, the power of a court to require one party to contribute to the fees of counsel of another party must be confined to cases where the plaintiff, suing in behalf of himself and others of the same class, discovers or creates a fund which enures to the benefit of all.' Syllabus, Point 2, Roach v. Wallins Creek Collieries Co., 111 W.Va. 1, 160 S.E. 860.

5. When attorneys represent parties in litigation involving the settlement of an estate and trust fund, and the first phase of such litigation benefits the estate and trust whereas a second phase of the litigation merely involves a dispute between the in adversary proceedings, the attorneys whose clients' interests were defeated may be compensated from the trust fund for the legal services in the first phase of litigation, but not for the legal services in the second phase.

Charles P. Mead, Ronald W. Kasserman, Wheeling, for appellants.

Petroplus, Bailey, Byrum & Hesse, George G. Bailey, Jay T. McCamic, Henry S. Schrader, Wheeling, for appellee.

BROWNING, Judge.

This is an appeal granted on December 16, 1968, from an order of the Circuit Court of Ohio County entered on April 29, 1968, which stated that that court had no authority to award fees for legal services rendered by the appellants, Charles P. Mead, attorney for Edwin McMahon Singer, administrator of the estate of Ruth M. Woodward, and the Chase Manhattan Bank as executor under the will of Philip G. Woodward; Ronald W. Kasserman, attorney for the First National Bank of Birmingham, trustee under the will of H. G. Woodward; and the First National Bank of Birmingham, executor under the will of Joseph H. Woodward, II.

The facts are substantially as follows: Caroline C. Hughes executed her will on May 5, 1900, and died on June 2, 1908. She gave all her property to her executor as trustee to be held in trust for the use of her granddaughter, Margaret Hervey Sweeney, for and during the term of her granddaughter's life. Following the death of Margaret Hervey Sweeney, the will directed in pertinent part as follows:

In case the said Margaret should die, leaving a child or children surviving her then all of the property held under this Will shall go to such child or children. If the said Margaret should die without issue surviving her then all of the property held in trust under this Will, after payment of her funeral expenses, shall go and pass to my brothers and sisters in equal shares, the share of any of them who may have died leaving children going to such children.

Margaret Harvey Sweeney was fourteen years old at the date of the death of her grandmother. She died on September 1, 1965, survived by no issue but by an adopted daughter. By order entered July 6, 1966, the Circuit Court of Ohio County found that the adopted daughter, Patti Sweeney, took nothing under the will. By order entered August 22, 1966, that court also decided that the testatrix intended that her residuary beneficiaries be determined upon the death of the life tenant and that, should Margaret Hervey Sweeney die without issue, the testatrix desired distribution of her residuary estate to the direct descendants of her brothers and sisters living at the date of the death of Margaret Hervey Sweeney, per stirpes.

Ruth M. Woodward and Philip G. Woodward were the children of Soloman Woodward, a brother of Carolina C. Hughes. Ruth M. Woodward died without issue on December 7, 1963, and Philip G. Woodward died without issue on January 21, 1964. Appellants, as attorneys for the fiduciaries of the Estates of Ruth M. Woodward and Philip G. Woodward, filed for an appeal in this Court from the aforementioned August 22, 1966 order of the Ohio County Circuit Court. An appeal was granted and by decision dated January 16, 1968, this Court affirmed that order. Security National Bank & Trust Co. v. William, 152 W.Va. 27, 158 S.E.2d 715.

On February 9, 1968, appellants filed their petitions with the Circuit Court of Ohio County requesting that a reasonable fee be allowed for legal services rendered by them for the above mentioned parties to this suit, and that said fees be paid by the appellee, Security National Bank & Trust Company, trustee under the will of Caroline C. Hughes from the assets of the Hughes Trust and as part of the cost of this action. Appellants in their petitions set forth their appearances in the court below on behalf of the parties represented by them and further set forth that they, in the court below and in this Court, opposed the application of the Committee for the adopted daughter of the life tenant of the trust under the will by oral arguments and by the filing of briefs. This Court in the case of Security National Bank & Trust Co. v. Willim, 151 W.Va. 429, 153 S.E.2d 114, found that the adopted daughter took nothing under the will.

The Ohio County Circuit Court by order entered April 29, 1968, found that it had no authority to award fees to appellants for services rendered by them on behalf of the aforementioned parties. Appellants here contend that the court below erred in its finding and that the fees should have been awarded. This Court granted this appeal from the final order of the Ohio County Circuit Court on December 16, 1968.

The able trial judge in his memorandum opinion giving his reasons for his action stated that it was his 'ruling that I have no authority whatsoever to award attorneys fees to the Petitioners * * *.' Counsel for one of the appellees herein construes that language to mean that the trial court was without the power to grant attorneys' fees because this was a case instituted under the provisions of Chapter 55, Article 13, of the Code, as amended, that Article being titled 'Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act.' Section 4 of that Article clearly provides that an executor, administrator, etc., may under this section have a declaration of rights in the administration of a trust, or of the estate of the decedent, etc. Whether a suit or action required the application of legal or equitable principles is not determinative of whether relief may be had in a declaratory judgment action. We are of the view that the trial court did have complete jurisdiction of the...