Surrogate John Czygier Jr.
Co-petitioners sought a decree judicially settling their account and approving payment to attorneys Drucker and Graham. At a conference, Drucker and Graham agreed to reduce their requests for fees, and the guardian ad litem agreed. The court noted the total value of assets collected by co-petitioners was nearly $178,000, and the legal fees requested were approximately 9.6 percent of the estate. It stated, however, where there were multiple attorneys performing services for the estate fiduciary, the aggregate fee awarded should not exceed the reasonable fee of one attorney. The court found Drucker was previously paid $7,650 from estate funds, and the billable time summaries submitted were reconstructions of work done in the estate, but offered little information rendering them meaningless. Also, it noted it continued to disallow items constituting postage, photocopying and express delivery as office overhead, expecting same to be absorbed by counsel. As such, the court disbursement requests to Graham were reduced to $700. Thus, in considering factors including the estate's size and "unexceptional" nature of its administration, the court fixed the fair and reasonable value of all services chargeable against the estate to $7,500 to be divided equally between Graham and Drucker.
