A recent New York Law Journal story, “First Department Rejects Guardian’s $700,000 Fee Request,” by Jason Grant reports that a lower court properly reduced—from nearly $700,000 to $100,000—the requested guardianship fees of an attorney who managed a Holocaust survivor's affairs, a New York appeals court has ruled.

The Appellate Division, First Department, ruled that attorney-guardian Mark Goldstein was "entitled to no more than 'reasonable compensation.'"  The panel, which affirmed Supreme Court Justice Howard Sherman's 2015 decision, wrote Sherman appropriately considered the fee's reasonableness given the short duration of the guardianship, and notwithstanding that Goldstein satisfactorily performed his duties.

The issue was whether Goldstein, a guardian for Celia Ascher in 2014, was owed a larger fee given the order appointing him said he shall be compensated in accordance with Surrogate's Court Procedure Act guidelines.

In an unsigned opinion, Justices David Friedman, Richard Andrias, Karla Moskowitz, Judith Gische and Ellen Gesmer said they must consider the relationship between the Surrogate's Court act and Mental Hygiene Law.  They pointed out that "all [the hygiene law's] references to the SCPA were eliminated" by a 2004 amendment.

The panel, in Goldstein v. Zabel, 91812/13, indicated the Mental Hygiene Law controlled, adding that "since the motion court set forth the factors it considered in deciding not to fix Goldstein's compensation in accordance with … the SCPA … [it] did not improvidently abuse its discretion."

Ascher, who died at 93, had more than $33 million in assets, the panel said.

Brian Shoot, a Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo partner, said Goldstein will seek leave to appeal.  He said the panel's decision incorrectly "renders the initial appointment legally irrelevant because irrespective of the compensation scale in the initial order, the determination will be what the reviewing judge deems 'reasonable' after the fact."