Estate of Baldwin

J. Gregg Evans for Claimants and Appellants.

Plath & Thurber and Marshall Thurber for Claimants and Respondents.

OPINION

KERRIGAN, J.

Frank E. Lembi ("respondent") is a licensed real estate broker. He conducts his business under his own name and the fictitious names of Skyline Realty and Skyline Realty, Inc. While Lembi is licensed, Skyline Realty is not.

The principal question involved in this appeal is whether the trial court acted with propriety in awarding Lembi a $76,500 commission for his services in connection with a probate sale.

During the course of the administration of the estate of Baldwin M. Baldwin, deceased, it became necessary to sell a vast apartment complex owned by the estate known as "Baldwin Hills Village" or "The Village Green" (herein "Village"), [1] in order to obtain sufficient funds to pay federal estate taxes, state inheritance taxes and expenses of administration.

Inasmuch as the first installment on the federal estate tax was due and payable on December 18, 1971, the co-executrices, Maruja Baldwin and Thelma L. Krieger ("cross-appellants"), acting through their counsel, apparently notified several prospective purchasers that a private sale of…