Probate: Fees Of Probate Administrator Wrongfully Not Given Administrative Priority Over Other Estate Distributions

Probate Code Section 11420 Dictated, Although Appellate Court Was Disturbed By Administrator’s Counsel’s Potential Conflicts Of Interest.

            In Estate of Steinberg (Hooy & Hooy v. Steinberg), Case No. A150046 (1^st Dist., Div. 2 April 30, 2019) (unpublished), a law firm serving as counsel for an initial administrator of a probate estate had payment of its fees subordinated by the probate court to other payments from the estate’s assets. That result was reversed on appeal based on Probate Code section 11420, which allows ordinary and extraordinary expenses to have priority over other expense distributions from an estate. However, although the parties did not really raise the issue or the fee disgorgement implications, the appellate court was disturbed by potential conflicts of interest and ethical violations by the appealing counsel, such that the question did not have to be confronted—but observing in the process that “this probate matter is an issue-spotting exercise in professional ethics that could rival a law school exam.”