Kennedy v. Consumers Ice Co.
Kennedy v. Consumers Ice Co.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff, an attorney at law, brought this suit to recover fifteen hundred dollars as an honorarium for professional services in the matter of the liquidation and dissolution of the defendant corporation and the sale of all it's ¡property and other assets.
The defense is summarized in the brief of counsel, who says that the issues before this court are:
“(1) Did the plaintiff have a contract to dissolve the corporation and what would be a reasonable fee for so doing?
“(2) What would be a reasonable fee for the services actually rendered by the plaintiff on a quantum meruit?”
Although plaintiff’s employment is not shown by resolution of the Board of Directors or other governing authority of the defendant company, the evidence is over-, whelmingly to the effect that the president of the company did employ him, that the directors and stockholders availed themselves of his services and that the corporation itself treated with him as its employed attorney and made use of and profited from his professional services, so that the first part of the interrogatory propounded by defendant may be answered unequivocally in the affirmative. Berlin vs. Cusachs, 114 La. 741, 38 South. 539; Mayville Canal Co. vs. Lake Arthur Rice, Mill, 119 La. 459, 44 South. 260.
Plaintiff does not allege nor does he attempt to prove that any fixed remuneration was stipulated between himself and' defendant when he was employed, and therefore the amount of his demand must necessarily be fixed as in the ease of a demand based on a quantum meruit. The amount was fixed by the trial judge in accordance with the fees usually charged for such services as were rendered by plaintiff, as shown by the testimony of local members of the bar, and we believe it is fair to both parties.
It appears from the record that the defendant company had agreed to accept from a Mr. S. R. Morgan of Little Rock, Arkansas, an offer to purchase its ice plant together with all the accessories of the plant. The president of the company, Mr. G. A. Rodemacher, and Morgan, the
The trial judge rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff for one thousand and sixty dollars and we see no error in that finding.
For these reasons the judgment appealed from is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.