Wolf v. United Railways Co.
Wolf v. United Railways Co.
Opinion of the Court
This is a suit under the attorney’s lien statute for compensation from defendant on account of services rendered by plaintiff attorney to his client in a cause which was settled by defendant without the alleged written consent of plaintiff. Plaintiff recovered and defendant prosecutes the appeal.
It appears plaintiff is an attorney at law engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of St. Louis and as such was employed by Clara M. Tucker to prosecute a claim for damages which accrued to her through a negligent injury inflicted while she was a passenger on defendant’s car. While Olara M. Tucker was a passenger on defendant’s street car, she suffered an injury through the negligent derailment of the car and employed plaintiff attorney, by a contract in writing, to prosecute her claim and collect damages from defendant through a suit at law or settlement and agreed to give him fifty per cent of the amount reovered, as compensation for his services. In due time, plaintiff served a notice of his employment upon defendant street car company and about this fact there is no controversy. Some time thereafter, defendant settled the claim of Glara M. Tucker with her in person and took a release and acquittance of her cause of action, for which it paid her the sum of $500. Thereafter, plaintiff instituted this suit against defendant under the attorney’s lien statute, seeking to recover from defendant as his compensation $250, or one-half the amount if had paid to his client, on the theory that defendant had settled the cause of action without his written consent, in disregard of the statute. The attorney’s lien statute referred to gives an attorney at. law a lien upon his client’s cause of action and authorizes contracting for a contingent fee of a percentage of the amount recovered by suit or settle-
Tbe principal argument advanced for a reversal of the judgment is to tbe effect that plaintiff failed to sustain tbe burden which thq law placed upon him, by introducing sufficient proof tó show a prima facie right of recovery, in that it does not appear defendant settled the caused of action with Clara M. Tucker without- bis written consent. Indeed, it is said from all that appears it may be plaintiff gave both written and verbal consent to the settlement and it did not devolve upon-defendant to prove the contrary. We believe the argument to be sound for besides tbe statute on which tbe suit predicates being in derogation of tbe common law and in its character penal, it confers a cause of action upon plaintiff in the circumstances stated only when tbe settlement, is bad without bis consent, for of course written consent is included in the broader term of consent alone. In other words, if no consent whatever is given, of course, then no written consent for the settlement was bad. Though the mere verbal consent of plaintiff to the settlement might not be a valid defense for defendant, never-' theless no right of action accrued to plaintiff unless the settlement was made without his consent and by the express terms of the statute, a cause of action did accrue to him if the settlement was made by defendant without his witten consent. It is therefore entirely clear that plaintiff grounds his right of recovery on the fact that
Though defendant had knowledge of the written, consent of plaintiff to the settlement, if such was given, its knowledge in that behalf was not peculiar to itself as between it and the plaintiff, for he equally knew the fact. In other words, plaintiff knew whether or not he had given his written consent to the settlement and might have adduced all of the evidence necessary on the subject by the mere statement that no such consent was given. He was a witness on the stand and the matter was as convenient, if not more so, to be given in evidence by him as on the part of defendant, who, of course, would be called upon to search for and produce the writing to the end of proving the fact. However, the matter is not to be determined as if the fact were peculiarly
But, on this feature of the case, it is to be distinguished from those where the defendant is charged with doing an unlawful act under a negative averment as without license, for here, instead of the act charged being unlawful in the general sense of the word, it is violative of the rights of one individual, the plaintiff. In other words, the act of settling a lawsuit is commendable and therefore favored by the policy of the law in the broad sense of that term, for it promotes the peace and repose of society as a whole, though the averred circumstance of settling the causé of action Avitbout the written consent of the attorney violated the rights of an individual member of the social compact- and vested a cause of action in him. However, this discussion is beside the case, as the precise situation presented is one where the plaintiff grounds his cause of action on a negative averment, the knowledge of which is obviously not peculiar to defendant for the fact so negatived is equally known to both and quite as susceptible to proof by plaintiff, if not more so, than by defendant. In such circumstances, all of the authorities reflect the proposition that the onus is on the plaintiff, as stated by our Supreme Court in the cases cited, supra.
Because of the failure of proof above discussed, the judgment should be reversed and the cause remanded. It is so ordered.
Dissenting Opinion
DISSENTING OPINION.
While my learned associate, Judge Noktoni, has made a very fair statement of the facts, I consider it necessary to an understanding of my position to set.them out somewhat more in-detail.
The petition or statement in this case avers that plaintiff, an attorney and counselor at law, engaged in practicing as such in the city of St. Louis, entered into a written contract of employment with one Clara Tuck
At the trial in the circuit court, the contract between plaintiff and Olara Tucker was introduced and read in evidence without objection made or exception saved. It is as set out in the statement filed before the justice.
There was no direct evidence in the case offered by plaintiff, that the alleged settlement was made by defendant with plaintiff’s client without the written consent of plaintiff. Nor was there any evidence offered by defendant of any consent by plaintiff to the settlement.
The notice of plaintiff to defendant, of his contract, as alleged in the petition, was’ introduced in evidence, and the fact of its service upon the managing officer of defendant was not controverted. The notice itself is dated June 8, as stated in the petition. The release executed by Clara Tucker was read in evidence by plaintiff, having been produced by defendant on notice to that effect. It is dated September 30, 1908, purports to be signed by Miss Clara M. Tucker and to be witnessed by the signatures of two persons, one of them an attorney and member of a firm, claimed by defendant in questions its counsel put in cross-examination of witnesses to have succeeded the plaintiff as attorney for Miss Tucker. This release acknowledges the receipt by Clara M. Tucker from defendant of $500, and on that consideration releases and acquits and discharges defendant from any and all liability accrued or thereafter accruing on account of any and all claims or causes of action'which Clara M. Tucker now has or may hereafter have against the company defendant, on account of injuries received on or about June 7, 1908, through being a passenger on the car of the company. There
At the close- of the evidence for plaintiff, defendant interposed a demurrer. That being overruled and defendant introducing no evidence, there was a verdict and judgment for plaintiff, for the full amount claimed, from which defendant has duly appealed.
As will be noticed this is an action under section 965, Revised. Statutes 1909, relating to liens of attorneys for their fees, and prohibiting a defendant, with notice of the lien, from settling the case without the written consent of the attorney.
Counsel for appellant make three points for a reversal. It is only necessary to notice the first point, as it is upon the conclusion arrived at on this that I am compelled to differ with my learned associates. That point is, that there is no evidence that the alleged settlement made by.defendant with plaintiff’s client was without his written consent. Swinhart v. St. Louis & S. R. Co., 207 Mo. 423, l. c. 434, 105 S. W. 1043, is cited in support of this. In that case, after stating the general rule to be that the burthen of proof is on the party holding the affirmative, and noting exceptions to that rule, and citing Greenleaf on Evidence, sec. 78, in support of it, Judge Graves adds: “Of course, if the knowledge and power to produce the evidence is possessed equally, the plaintiff must make the proof.” The learned judge cites People v. Nedrow, 16 Ill. App. l. c. 192, and Bonney & Bonney v. Ketcham, 51 Ill. App. l. c. 321, in support of this, but a reference to these cases hardly bears out the rule as announced. Nor have I found any case that does. It is true that in Fulwider v. Trenton Gas, Light & Power Co., 216 Mo. 582, l. c. 594, 116 S. W. 508, Judge Lamm lifts the whole paragraph in which this sentence
The case of Little v. Thompson, 2 Me. 228, incorrectly cited by counsel as 21 Me. 228, is also cited and quoted from; at the conclusion of the quotation, counsel saying that it was held in that case “that the absence of evidence of the vrant of consent was fatal to plaintiff’s case.” In Little v. Thompson, the point in decision is the sufficiency of the declaration to support the verdict. Not a word is said as to the evidence in the case, the court holding that for lack of the averment in the declaration, that the act was done “without the consent of the owner,” whose property had been taken, the petition was fatally defective. In the case at bar the averment of lack of written consent is distinctly made.
Rex v. Rogers, 2 Campbell 654, also cited, was an
In Rex v. Hazy and Collins, 2 Carrington & Payne 458, also cited, an indictment for lopping and topping a tree, “without the consent” of the owner, it appeared that the owner had died before the trial, having previously given orders for the apprehension of the prisoners on suspicion. The only evidence of lack of consent was by the steward, called to prove that he himself had never given any consent and from all he had heard his master say, he believed that he never did. The owner, before he died, had given orders for apprehending the prisoners on suspicion. Mr. Justice Bayley told the jury that they must be perfectly satisfied that the prisoners had not obtained the consent of the owner of the tree to lop it and left it to the jury to say whether they thought there was reasonable evidence to show that in fact he had not given any such permission. He adverted to the time of the night when the offense was committed and to the circumstance of the prisoners running away when detected, “as evidence to show, that the consent required had not in fact been given.” The defendants were found guilty. These two English cases arose and were determined at nisi prius, the one in 1811, the other in 1826. In neither of these cases was there direct proof; in the last the jury were left to draw the inference of lack of consent of the owner, not on affirmative testimony of lack of consent, but from all the facts and
In State v. Meek, 70 Mo. 355, the court held (l. c. 359) that in many cases a negative averment is not necessary to be proven; it is to be considered as proved, if it is not disproved by the defendant.
Prom these authorities, it is clear that the application of the rule depends largely upon the facts in each particular case.
There were no pleadings in the case at bar on the part of defendant. It did appear by the evidence that defendant had made the settlement; that that settlement was signed by Clara M. Tucker; that her signature was witnessed by two other parties, one of them the attorney whom, it was claimed by defendant, was a member of the law firm which succeeded plaintiff as attorney for Clara M. Tucker in the prosecution of the claim against defendant, as it was claimed by defendant. While it is true that the defendant introduced no evidence, its line of defense was clearly developed by the vigorous cross-examination of the plaintiff and his witnesses. The whole line of cross-examining proceeded, not on the theory that plaintiff had never consented to the settlement, but that he had not in fact ever been employed by Miss Tucker, and that whatever employment he may have had was revoked and other attorneys employed. This wag absolutely inconsistent with any claim of assent to a settlement on the part of plaintiff.
An attempt even was made by defendant’s counsel to prove that the services rendered by plaintiff were of no such value as to warrant his claim to one-half the amount recovered by or paid to Miss Tucker. Clearly the jury had facts before it from which it had a right to infer that the settlement was made without the consent of plaintiff. On the facts in evidence as I have set them out, the court was justified in leaving it to the jury to find whether plaintiff had given written consent
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.