Estate of Tiffany

1. A contest of the probate of a will partakes of the nature of a civil action; and the issues and results are determined and applied in like manner: Code Civ. Proc., secs. 1033, 1716.

With the exception of the two items—Expert, $27.50, and Expert, $50—the bill should be allowed; and, as to those two items, there should be deducted therefrom in each case all but one day’s witness fee.

*37 2. The exceptions to the account of the special administrators should be allowed. Section 1415, Code of Civil Procedure, does not authorize the allowance of expenses incurred in and about a will contest, nor claims which had their origin in the lifetime of the decedent. In the Estate of Cynthia Hoff Shillaber, Deceased (No. 4015, Superior Court, Probate, Coffey, J.), this court has given its views upon the powers and duties of special administrators, and also in the Estate of Hannah M. Sackett (No. 6775, Superior Court, Probate, Coffey, J.) The special administrators are entitled to the aid of counsel to assist them in discharging their special functions, as prescribed in section 1415, Code of Civil Procedure, and to reasonable compensation for their own services.

3. In the matter of the…