1 N.Y.S. 17 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1888
In the bill of costs of the attorney and counsel for the executor, he has charged for 106 days, less 2 and adjournments not specified, for time occupied in the trial or hearing upon the settlement of the executor’s accounts, in preparing such accounts, and preparing for the trial or hearing. The estate was neither large nor complicated, and these charge's must necessarily have excited the suspicion and incredulity of the surrogate. Whether they should be allowed or not, to a very great extent, depended upon the exercise of his discretion, as that has been regulated under sections 2561, 2562, Code Civil Proc.; and to guide him judiciously in the exercise of that authority, he required information which could naturally be obtained, if it was accessible, from the attorney, concerning the foundation and justice of these charges. He might, in his discretion, have disallowed them entirely, so far as no absolute legal right existed for sustaining them, or he might, to secure