| N.J. | Jan 31, 1927
The respondent, Celia Sobel, instituted an action for divorce against her husband, the present appellant. The hearing of the action resulted in the making of a decree of divorce, and for permanent alimony. The defendant appealed to this court from so much of the decree as awarded alimony, and there was an affirmance. While the matter was before us an application was made on behalf of the wife for the allowance of a counsel fee to be paid by the husband for services rendered by her counsel in this court. No action, however, was taken on this application, and, the portion of the decree appealed from having been affirmed, the remittitur went down without any adjudication upon the application for such counsel fee. In this situation, counsel for Mrs. Sobel applied to the court of chancery for an order directing the appellant to pay her counsel a reasonable compensation for the services rendered by him to her in this court on the appeal from the award of alimony. This application was granted, and a counsel fee of $1,000 was directed to be paid to the respondent's counsel. From the order so directing the husband has appealed, and the sole ground upon which the appeal is rested is that the court of chancery had no jurisdiction to make such an order; in other words, that this court alone could take action upon such an application.
The contention that the court of chancery was without jurisdiction to make the order appealed from is directly in the face of our decision in the case of Weeks v. Lister,
It is further argued before us that the amount of the counsel fee allowed by the court of chancery — namely, $1,000 — is excessive, but that matter is not made a ground of appeal, and, therefore, is not entitled to consideration here.
The decision in Weeks v. Lister, supra, is controlling and requires an affirmance of the order under review.
For affirmance — THE CHIEF-JUSTICE, TRENCHARD, MINTURN, KALISCH, KATZENBACH, CAMPBELL, LLOYD, VAN BUSKIRK, McGLENNON, KAYS, HETFIELD, JJ. 11.
For reversal — BLACK, J. 1.