Grady

This is an appeal from an order denying appellants’ petition for attorney fees for services rendered to successful claimants in a liquidation proceeding.

In 1936 the Insurance Commissioner of the State of California, pursuant to statutory provisions, commenced proceedings against the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California which eventually resulted in the liquidation of that company. The litigation following the commissioner’s action has been lengthy and involved, and was most recently and completely summarized in chronological order in McConnell v. Pacific Mutual Life Ins. Co. (1962) 205 Cal.App.2d 469 [ 24 Cal.Rptr. 5 ],

In the instant proceedings it will not be necessary for our purposes to review the whole course of litigation. The issues now presented refer only to the propriety of an allowance of *675 attorney fees for legal services rendered in the 1962 proceedings. Prom the record before us it appears that the commissioner, as the duly appointed liquidator of Pacific Mutual, came into possession of a fund of approximately $8,000,000 belonging to the shareholders of the company subject only to a contingent tax liability and undetermined claims for interest on…