Trojan's Estate, In re

• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: PER CURIAM
• Citation: Trojan's Estate, In re, 255 N.W.2d 305, 79 Wis.2d 3 (Wis. 1977)
• Decision Date: 01 July 1977
• Docket Number: No. 75-107,75-107
• Parties: In re ESTATE of Walter G. TROJAN, Deceased. Jean W. TROJAN, General Guardian of person and Estate of Janet Trojan, a minor, Appellant, v. Amy TROJAN, personal representative of the Estate of Walter G. Trojan, Raynald F. Trojan and Amy Trojan, personal representatives of the Estate of Sadie Trojan, Deceased, Mark M. Camp, guardian ad litem for Janet Trojan, minor, Respondents.

Page 305

255 N.W.2d 305

79 Wis.2d 3

In re ESTATE of Walter G. TROJAN, Deceased Jean W. TROJAN, General Guardian of person and Estate of Janet Trojan, a minor, Appellant, v. Amy TROJAN, personal representative of the Estate of Walter G. Trojan, Raynald F. Trojan and Amy Trojan, personal representatives of the Estate of Sadie Trojan, Deceased Mark M. Camp, guardian ad litem for Janet Trojan, minor, Respondents.

No. 75-107.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Submitted on Briefs March 30, 1977.

Decided July 1, 1977.

Bernard F. Mathiowetz, Milwaukee, on brief, for appellant.

Robert J. Beaudry, West Allis, on brief, for Amy Trojan, personal representative of the estate of Walter G. Trojan; Kenneth J. Murray, Milwaukee, and Roland J. Steinle, Jr., Cedarburg, of counsel.

deVries, Vlasak & Schallert, S. C., Milwaukee, on brief, for Raynald F. Trojan and Amy Trojan, personal representatives of the estate of Sadie Trojan.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal from parts of three orders dealing with the determination and approval of attorney and guardian ad litem fees in the probate of the estate of Walter G. Trojan. The original probate proceedings included a hearing on objections to admission of the will and the determination of issues of heirship involving a Mexican divorce secured by testator's wife. After this divorce a compromise agreement between the parties involved was entered into and was followed by a hearing on setting aside the compromise, which was a matter of prior appeal to this court. See: Estate of Trojan, 53 Wis.2d 293, 193 N.W.2d 8 (1972).

The challenge on appeal in the instant case as it was in the trial court is to fees approved by the probate judge for legal services performed by the following: the attorney for the personal representative, the attorney for the co-conservators, the guardian ad litem for the minor child of the testator, and the attorneys for the general guardian of the minor child.

Appellant contended at the trial court level, not that the trial court erred in finding the fees for legal services to be reasonable, but rather that the fees were not payable from the estate. On appeal, as to the attorney for the estate, appellant contends that a time of assertion of 500 hours is not warranted upon the record and a fee predicated thereon should not be sustained.

In determining the reasonableness of attorney fees when challenged on appeal, factors to be considered include the ". . . amount and character of the services rendered, the labor, the time, and trouble involved, the character and importance of the litigation . . . ." Herro, McAndrews & Porter v. Gerhardt, 62 Wis.2d 179, 184, 214 N.W.2d 401, 404 (1974). At the trial court hearing on fees, the estate attorney testified that he charged for 500 hours and submitted a statement as to dates on which particular services were performed. He further testified that he did not charge for all services performed. The trial court finding that 500 hours were spent, and necessarily so, in handling the varied proceedings including an appeal to this court, will not be set aside on appeal by this court.

However the basic challenge to the allowance of the fee of the attorney for the estate, as well as to the fees approved for the attorney who represented co-conservators in the proceedings and earlier appeal, is that, once the compromise agreement was reached, they represented Amy Trojan, not in her role as personal representative of the estate, but rather in her role as co-conservator of the estate of Amy's and Walter's mother, Sadie Trojan. No evidence is offered in support of this contention.

It may be true that much of the legal work which was required following the compromise involved litigation and an...