Columbus v. Sheehy
Columbus v. Sheehy
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
The plaintiff has not declared upon the McCarthy contract.
The defendant avers that he was to receive a retainer of $250 and a fee of $2,500 in the event of success, and that the plaintiff was to receive the same. The McCarthy contract, drawn in defendant’s office, stipulates that “the parties of the second part,” that is the plaintiff and defendant, are to receive a retainer of $500 and an additional fee of $5,000 in the event of success. There is no averment in the defendant’s affidavit that each of these parties was to collect his own fee, and the averment that the plaintiff “acquiesced” in the payment to him is a mere conclusion of law, not supported by the other averments of the affidavit. Tinder the facts stated in plaintiff’s particulars of demand, and admitted in the defendant’s affidavit, these parties really were joint adventurers. As such, they should have been loyal to each other. Receipt of proceeds of the adventure by one party was receipt for the other. Certainly one party ought not to be permitted to secure all the proceeds of the adventure possible to be obtained, and apply this amount to the full satisfaction of his own share, at the expense of the other party. The injured party does not acquiesce in sttch an attempt by making an unsuccessful effort to collect the balance of the expected proceeds of the adventure. Such an attempt on his part is merely evidence of good faith. The concluding averments in the defendant’s affidavit to the effect that he did not make any promise, express or implied, out of which there did or could arise any obligation on his part to pay the plaintiff the amount claimed, is a conclusion of law, and, as suggested of other averments in his affidavit, inconsistent with the admitted facts of the case. We are clearly of the opinion that judgment should have been entered for the plaintiff in the amount claimed.
Judgment reversed, with costs, and cause remanded for further proceedings. Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- COLUMBUS v. SHEEHY
- Cited By
- 1 case
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- Syllabus
- Contracts; Illegality; Affidavits of Defense. 1. The illegality on the ground of public policy of a contract between two attorneys and a client, because of tlie object sought to be accomplished by the contract, will not prevent one of the attorneys from maintaining an action against the other to recover one half of the fees received from the client. 2. Where two attorneys entered into a written contract whereby a client agreed to pay them a $500 retaining fee and a contingent fee of $5,000, and- they received and divided the retaining fee, and after the services under the contract had been fully performed, one of the attorneys, who had prepared the contract, collected from the client and kept as his own $2,500, an affidavit of defense in an action against him by the other attorney to recover one half of that sum as money had and received to the use of the plaintiff is insufficient, which recites that the defendant’s agreement with the plaintiff was that he, the defendant, should receive $250 retaining fee and $2,500 in the event of success; that after the services were performed he called upon the plaintiff to collect his, the defendant’s, fee, which the plaintiff failed to do; that thereupon the defendant collected his fee from the client, and the plaintiff acquiesced in the payment and then negotiated directly with the client for the payment of the $2,500 due him: and that the defendant made no promise out of which there could arise any obligation on his part to pay the plaintiff the sum he claimed, or any other sum. (Citing American Secur. & T. Co. v. Kavency, 39 App. D. C. 223.)