PATTERSON v. PATTERSON

ORDERED that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, with costs, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Suffolk County, for a hearing on the issue of an award of an attorney's fee, if any, to the plaintiff.

The Supreme Court erred in awarding the plaintiff an attorney's fee in the sum of $23,157.28 without first conducting an evidentiary hearing. Under the circumstances of this case, a hearing was necessary both to explore the relative financial circumstances of the parties (see Kiprilova v. Kiprilov, 255 A.D.2d 362), and to afford the defendant a "meaningful way of testing the [attorney's] claims relative to time and value" (Price v. Price, 113 A.D.2d 299, affd 69 N.Y.2d 8; see also Green v. Green, 288 A.D.2d 436; Nee v. Nee, 240 A.D.2d 478; Popack v. Popack, 179 A.D.2d 746).

FEUERSTEIN, J.P., KRAUSMAN, McGINITY and MASTRO, JJ., concur.