In Re Estate of Austin M. Painter

Following the administration of the Austin M. Painter estate, valued at approximately one million dollars, the district court awarded the administrator, the First National Bank of Greeley, $39,337 in fees and counsel for the administrator, William H. Southard, $42,000 in fees. On the basis that the duties performed by the administrator and counsel were of a routine nature and involved no legal disputes, a beneficiary of the estate, the State Board of Agriculture, challenges those awards as being excessive. We agree that they were excessive and remand for a redetermination of both awards.