Honda v. Mitchell

This appeal relates to the award of counsel fees for services rendered in connection with claims by depositors of the Yokohama Specie Bank. The assets of that bank were seized as alien property, and the primary dispute in the litigation underlying the present claim for legal fees involved the rights of the bank depositors, who held “yen certificates,” to recover from the Alien Property Custodian.1

After the termination of a protracted administrative proceeding in which appellant Carolan and his associates represented all claimants, the Alien Property Custodian decided that the postwar yen…