star-pagination">*Page 90 certain bonds and mortgages and cash, approximately $40,000, transfer to her a piece of real estate and pay her $20 a week alimony; the wife to surrender her right in his real estate and transfer to him her interest in a $6,000 mortgage. The master reported the settlement and the court approved it by a consent order, January 28th, 1930, in which an allowance was made to complainant's counsel of $1,900 ($1,400 of which the complainant was to pay) and to the master $1,000 which the defendant was to pay. These amounts were agreed upon by the parties as fair compensation as of that time. In proceeding to attach him for contempt for his failure to comply with the order approving the settlement, the defendant set up that he could not produce the bonds and mortgages and that he was disappointed in raising the cash. Later, upon petition and order to show cause, the order approving the settlement was vacated and the master was directed to continue the hearing on the motion to reduce the alimony, which resulted in his report of $75 a week.

The story is quickly told, but the bulky files tell the tale of nearly two years of vigilant and constant pressure by counsel to bring the defendant, ever evasive and persistently contumacious, to book. It was for these services that counsel applied for compensation at the time of the motion to confirm the master's report, and these services the court had in mind, not in detail of course, but it knew from its protracted experiences with the litigation when it made the allowance. It would perhaps have avoided confusion had the allowance been made by separate order, but adding the allowance for counsel to an order for alimony is common practice.

The special master's allowances. It must be conceded that they were earned. Counsel had agreed upon $1,000 as just compensation up to his first report. After the matter was referred, the master performed additional services. For the total services the court allowed less than had been agreed upon for part of them. The statutory warrant for the allowance is to be found in section 80 of the Chancery act. Comp. Stat. p. 440. *Page 91

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