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Arguing before the master, on a reference to take and state an account, two dollars and fifty cents.

Attending a master, upon a summons to attend him, or upon a taxation of costs, fifty cents.

Attending the register with the draft of every decree, decretal or other order, to have the same settled and entered, fifty cents.

Copy of a bill of costs to be delivered to the opposite party before taxation, or to file after taxation, if before a decree, fifty cents, and if after a decree, one dollar.

And the solicitor is to be allowed in the taxation of costs for all disbursements actually and necessarily paid or incurred in the progress of the cause, and not herein already provided for.

Fees of the sergeant of the court. Each sergeant for attending court, for every final decree entered at the place of his attendance, and whether entered in term or vacation, fifty cents, to be paid to the register, or assistant register, where the decree is entered; and for such other services as he shall perform by order of the court, such compensation as the chancellor shall from time to time allow, to be paid by the party or in the manner the court shall direct.

II. And be it further enacted, That no register, assistant register, examiner, clerk or master in the court of chancery, shall hereafter exact or receive any fee or costs for any services not actually rendered or performed by such register, assistant register, examiner, clerk or master: And that in all cases in which decrees and other proceedings in any cause in the said court shall actually be drawn by the solicitor in said cause, the fees for drawing the same shall be charged by such solicitor.

III. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act, entitled, "An act regulating the fees of the several officers and ministers of justice within this state," passed April 9, 1813, as relates to the counsellors' fees, the solicitors' fees, and sergeants' fees of the court of chancery, be, and the same is hereby repealed.

Explanation to the Fee Bill.

As an explanation of the preceding fee bill, the compiler has thought it would be acceptable to present the report made by his Honor the Chancellor to the Legislature, accompanying the bill prepared by him; which may serve as a commentary upon it, and explain doubts which may arise respecting the items.

Albany, Feb. 25th, 1818.

The Chancellor, in compliance with the resolution of the honorable the House of Assembly, of the 20th instant, requesting him " to prepare and transmit to the house, a new tariff or bill of fees, proper to be allowed in the court of chancery, and without regard to any laws or usages of that court now in force," has prepared, and has now the honor to submit, the bill of fees contained in the annexed schedules. He has accompanied each charge with explanatory remarks, showing the reason of the allowance, and how far, or why he has followed or varied from the existing law.

He has left untouched, the fees of the several officers of the court, such as the register, clerks, examiners and masters; because, upon inquiry and examination, he satisfied himself, that the present bill of fees in respect to these officers is well defined, and is no more than a just and adequate compensation for their services. If the charges might be properly varied in a few instances, it would only be in very immaterial points, not worth the expense and trouble of a revision. No complaint or abuse as to the charges of these officers has ever come to his knowledge since he presided in the court. He presumes, that the fees and charges of counsellors and solicitors, and especially those of the latter, gave occasion to the present inquiry, and he has accord, ingly examined that branch of the fee bill with the utmost care. It is impossible to state with any precision, the difference between the bill be has drawn, and the existing bill of fees. It will, no doubt, in its general operation, essentially reduce the gross amount of the taxable costs, and yet the real and valuable services of the solicitor will be better rewarded.

Chancery suits will frequently be very expensive, from the importance and amount of the matter in controversy, and the long and intricate inquiries that they inevitably lead to. This cannot be avoided, and it arises from the appropriate subjects of equity juris

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diction, such as mistakes, frauds, trusts, accounts, partnerships, and
the specific performance of contracts. In cases of serious litigation,
no fee bill ever did or ever can remunerate the solicitor and counsel
for one half of their services. A great part of that burden always
falls upon their own clients. The real mischief complained of arises
in plain and ordinary cases, and from a series of petty charges for
nominal services, or for services of no other use than to create
expense. Such charges, when industriously multiplied, and saga-
ciously interwoven in a long bill, increase the costs insensibly but
surprisingly. One great object with the Chancellor has been to
redress that grievance. He wishes to prevent imposition and extor
tion under the color of law, by removing the inducement to multiply
needless pages, needless copies, and needless abridgments of papers,
and also by removing the expense of fictitious motions, fictitious briefs,
and fictitious attendances. Such charges have often excited as much
disgust in bis mind, as they have dissatisfaction and alarm in that of
the suitor. On the other hand, the Chancellor has presumed, that he
should equally meet the wishes of the honorable and enlightened
house which called for this request, by allowing a reasonable reward
for their services to the practisers of a liberal and useful profession.
It is for the benefit of suitors, and necessary for the oppressed and the
helpless of all classes, that skilful, attentive and upright persons
should be encouraged in the due and faithful discharge of their trust as
solicitors, by a suitable recompense.
The Chancellor is not insensi.
ble to the truth, that we live under a government of laws, which are
the guardians of our civil rights, and which require wise and good
men to study and expound them, and that without the aid and light of
the profession, our courts would utterly despair of success in their
efforts to preserve the orderly, cultivated and intelligent administration
of justice.

It has accordingly been his aim to render to the solicitor his reasonable fees, and at the same time, to prevent all excess and to remove every abuse. If he has failed in the object, he has at least endeavored to attain it to the best of his judgment.

All which is humbly submitted.

JAMES KENT,

Chancellor of the State of New-York.

1

The Counsel's Fees.

1. A retaining fee in each cause, $5; but no retaining fee to be allowed for more than one counsel.

Remarks.-The acts of 1789, and of 1801, and of 1813, all allow a retaining fee of $3 75, which is only one shilling more than is allowed for an attorney's retaining fee in the supreme court. There is no kind of comparison between the two cases. A counsellor must be employed on the commencement of every suit in chancery, and probably the allowance of 5 dollars is not more than one fifth of the sum usually demanded. The commencement of a suit in chancery is not a plain business, like issuing a writ at law on a bond or note, for it generally requires great deliberation and reflection, and a patient attention to a conplicated history of facts.

2. Perusing, amending and signing every bill, answer, plea, demur. rer, interrogatories and exceptions, if not done by the person acting as solicitor in the same cause, $2 50.

Remarks. This is precisely the allowance in all the former stat'utes, but the latter clause of the paragraph was omitted in the act of 1813, and I think it ought to be restored; for if the same person acts in both capacities, he ought not to be allowed for his own labor, and also for revising and amending it.

3. Perusing and settling every final decree that is special in its provisions, $2 50.

Remarks.-This allowance is not in the acts of 1789 and 1801, but is in the act of 1813. It is there but $1 50, but then it is coupled with a like allowance for perusing and settling every petition or special application to the court, and every special order, and all of which allowances I have omitted. If those allowances were all retained, it is probable the charge would be ten times repeated and recovered in the course of a contested cause; for special applications and decretal orders arise at every step of the cause, and if a solicitor cannot draw a petition or a common decretal order without the aid of counsel, he is not competent to his business. But decrees are often exceedingly

difficult to draw with precision, and so as to define and settle with certainty the different parts of the remedy. By confining the allowance to the decree, much costs of suit will be abridged, and by enlarging the allowance in that case to the same sum allowed in the preceding paragraph, no more than justice will be done.

4. Every special motion actually made before the Chancellor, or every actual attendance to oppose a special motion, if the same be not argued $1 50, but if the same be argued, $2 50.

Remarks. This provision is intended to embrace all that is contained in the former statutes about the allowance for motions. The acts of 1789 and 1801, allowed for every motion of course 50 cents, and for every special motion $1 25; but they took care to exclude from the allowance a number of common motions particularly specified, and which are entered of course by the clerks. The act of 1813, gave 50 cents to counsel for every rule or order entered of course, and excluded no common motion. It also allowed $1 25 for every special motion, and $2 50 for arguing every special motion.It is inconceivable how these common fictitious motions swell a bill of costs. They lead to very great abuse. I have in this case avoided the evil by confining the allowance to special motions actually made before the chancellor. There can be no imposition in that case, and when such motions are actually and necessarily made, the allowance is not unreasonable, for such motions often lead to very great discussion.

5. Arguing every plea or demurrer or exceptions, $5.

Remarks.-The allowance in the acts of 1789 and 1801, was $3 75, for arguing the plea or demurrer, and $2 50 for arguing exceptions. The allowance by the act of 1813, for the plea of demurrer, was $5, and nothing was said about exceptions, though the argument on them was probably intended to be embraced by the allowance of $8 for arguing on hearing. The allowance of $5 is quite reasonable for argument in either of those three cases. I have known arguments before me on exceptions to a master's report, when the report was on matters of account, to consume several days, and at a steady sitting of from 5 to 7 hours a day. The counsel on such arguments generally earn from ten to twenty times such an allowance,

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