Partition proceeding — Costs — Counsel fees — Allowance of — Act of June 7, 1917, P.L. 337, Section 35a.
In an appeal from an Auditor's Report disallowing counsel fees as costs in a partition proceeding, under the Act of June 7, 1917, P.L. 337, Section 35a, the record disclosed that the original petitioner in the partition suit had failed to carry the proceeding to a conclusion, and that the exceptant, a respondent in the former proceeding, pressed the matter to a final decision. The counsel fees of the original petitioner were allowed and taxed as part of the costs, but the exceptant's counsel fees were disallowed. In such case the decree of the Court dismissing the exceptions to the Auditor's report will be affirmed.
The right to tax costs in a partition proceeding is derived from statutory authority. The petitioner alone is entitled, under the Partition Act, to an allowance for counsel fees, and there is no authority for the taxation of additional counsel fees of a respondent who actively pressed the suit to a final conclusion.
Argued October 11, 1929.
PER CURIAM, October 30, 1929:
The judgment is affirmed on the opinion of Judge STEARNE of the orphans' court of Philadelphia County.