LEWIS GUTHRIE, APPELLANT,
v.
HILDA GUTHRIE, APPELLEE
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In this Florida family law appeal, the husband challenges an $8,000 attorney's fee award to the wife's counsel for appellate services in a dissolution of marriage case. The court reduced the fee to $5,000, finding that 91 hours of work on routine dissolution issues could not be justified, particularly the 20 hours spent in client conferences.
The court held that the $8,000 attorney's fee award was not justified and reversed, awarding instead $5,000 in appellate attorney's fees, finding that the hours claimed, particularly the 20 hours of client conferences, were not reasonably necessary and were excessive relative to the complexity and routine nature of the issues presented.
[1] An award of attorney's fees for services rendered on appeal must be based on services that were reasonably necessary.
[2] Time spent conferring with a client to indulge their eccentricities or emotional nature is not compensable from the opposing party in attorney's fees.
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Establishes the legal standard for determining whether attorney's fees are recoverable from the opposing party
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceA final judgment of dissolution awarded the wife exclusive possession of the marital home, $400 monthly alimony, and $1,000 in trial attorney's fees. …
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[*248] DOWNEY, Judge.
The husband appeals from an order awarding an attorney’s fee to counsel for the wife for services rendered on appeal from the final judgment of dissolution of marriage.
A final judgment of dissolution was entered awarding the wife, among other things, exclusive possession of the jointly held marital domicile, $400 per month alimony and attorney’s fees in the amount of $1000. The wife appealed setting forth seven points for review. This court in Guthrie v. Guthrie, 315 So. 2d 498 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975), reversed on two of said appellate points and directed the trial court to 1) give the wife credit, upon a sale of the marital domicile, for one-half of the mortgage payments, interest, taxes, insurance and repairs, and 2) increase the award of alimony. This court also directed the trial court to determine the amount of attorney’s fees to be awarded to the wife’s counsel for services rendered during the appeal. Upon remand the trial court awarded the wife’s counsel $8000 for said attorney’s fees. This appeal by the husband concerns that award.
The wife’s counsel testified that he spent ninety-one hours on the appeal, twenty of which were in conference with his client. It was necessary, counsel testified, for him to confer with his client to determine what points should be raised on appeal and what should be included in the appendix. In addition, the client participated with counsel in redrafting the several rough drafts of appellant’s briefs.
We are not insensitive to the fact that matrimonial litigation is often more emotionally charged than the usual case and that clients in this type of case frequently require more “nursing” than the average client. However, we have re-examined the briefs involved in the original appeal and find the points raised are routine issues involved in dissolution cases. Thus, the ninety-one hours spent in submitting the appeal on behalf of the appellant simply cannot be justified. We also see no justification for the expenditure of twenty hours conference time with the client for an appeal. The fact that appellant was very emotional and persistent in nature does not mean that all of the time spent with her was reasonably necessary and that is the test in assessing fees against the opposing party, Allstate Insurance v. Baer, 334 So. 2d 135 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1976). Work done that is not reasonably necessary but performed to indulge the eccentricities of the client should more properly be charged to the client rather than the opposing party.
We note further the award of an attorney’s fee for the trial court proceeding which produced a record of over 600 pages and a transcript of over 200 pages was only $1000.
In summary, we have closely considered this record, the briefs from the original appeal, and all of the contentions of the appellee in order to find support for the amount of the fee awarded for that appeal and we cannot do so. We conclude that the services rendered herein cannot justify a fee of $8000. In reaching that conclusion we are not unmindful of the fact that appellant adduced the testimony of a lawyer who opined a fee of $9000 was reasonable.
Accordingly, we reverse the order appealed from and remand the cause with directions to enter an order allowing counsel for the wife a fee of $5000.
REVERSED AND REMANDED with directions.
ALDERMAN, C. J., and CROSS, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Guthrie v. Guthrie, 315 So. 2d 498 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975)
- Allstate Ins. Co. v. Bernhard Baer and Yetta Baer, 334 So. 2d 135 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976)