In Re Estate of Lux

TEMPLE, J.

— Charles Lux died about 1887 (the precise time does not appear in the transcript). On the twenty-fifth day of April, 1889, the superior court of San Mateo County, where the estate was in probate, made an order in which it is recited that one John Reynolds was on the fourteenth day of April, 1887, appointed to represent the absent heirs (naming them), and that said Reynolds is now superior judge of Santa Clara County, and that “James H. Campbell, of San José, California, has ever since been employed by and acted for such absent and minor heirs; it is therefore hereby ordered that said James H. Campbell be, and is hereby, appointed attorney for aforesaid heirs, to represent them in all proceedings throughout the administration of the estate of said Charles Lux, deceased.” July 21, 1890, the court, on petition of said Campbell, ordered the executors to pay him, as such attorney, thirty thousand dollars for past services, and twelve thousand dollars per year, quarterly, every third month, thereafter, during the administration.

On the 12th of June, 1896, the executors filed a petition, in which they represented that they had paid said attorney eighty-three thousand dollars under that Order, which they represented was in its nature a partial distribution to the named heirs, and for certain reasons they ask that further payments be suspended.

August 8, 1896, the, absent heirs themselves applied to have

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the order appointing Campbell their attorney vacated. In their petition they represented that on the fourteenth day of July, 1900, “and prior thereto,” they made an agreement with Mr; Campbell, and stated that “the said J. H. Campbell agreed to act as attorney for your petitioners in the administration of the estate of said deceased, and to perform any and all legal services necessary and proper in and about the said estate of said deceased, as attorney for your petitioners, in representing them and other several interests therein, to and including the final settlement of the said estate and the distribution thereof, and to faithfully and diligently represent and act for your petitioners, as their legal attorney and adviser, throughout the administration of said estate, and in steps, matters, and proceedings therein taken for the defense, protection, and maintenance of their rights and privileges in said estate, and to institute all actions and proceedings necessary for the enforcement of the rights of your petitioners, as such heirs, devisees, and legatees, and to defend them against all suits and oppose and resist all measures and proceedings likely to prove detrimental or injurious to them, or to their interests in said estate,” etc., for which services they agreed to give him an interest in their portions of the estate equal to three per cent thereof. Any allowance made to him by the court was to be credited on his said fee, after paying expenses. They further represented that said attorney had already received $93,000 for his services, and that the estate of Charles Lux was not worth more, than $2,632,383.94, — their interest therein being less than one half thereof,—and that said attorney had already been paid more than his fee.