Probate: Probate Court’s Order For Attorneys Helping Resolving Ownership Claims And Rendering Tax Advice Properly Awarded

These Were Extraordinary Compensation Or Fees Properly Awarded.

            In Estate of Lund, Case No. A156410 (1^st Dist., Div. 1 June 3, 2020) (unpublished), a decedent’s son appealed two attorney’s fees awards which were rendered in a probate matter.  The first concerned an attorney’s efforts to resolve ownership claims by preparing a Probate Code section 9832 petition to clear title and then resolving it through a settlement agreement.  The appellate court found that this CRC 7.703 extraordinary compensation request was entitled to compensation.  The second involved fees for work by an estate’s tax attorney to resolve issues for an estate ultimately valued at $4 million and where the decedent lived in three different states over his lifetime.  This one was found reasonable, as it facially should have been.