Lee v. Gump

KNIGHT, J.

This is an action on an assigned claim for attorneys’ fees. The amount sued for was $-2,350, and the trial court, sitting without a jury, found the services to be of the reasonable value of $1250, and gave judgment for that amount, from which judgment the defendant has appealed.

There is no controversy as to the legal services being rendered nor as to the reasonableness of the amount allowed therefor, but as will hereinafter appear, said services were performed in connection with the settlement of the marital difficulties of appellant’s son and at the trial appellant claimed that any promise made by him to pay for such services amounted to no more than a collateral undertaking which admittedly was not in writing; and in any event that if any direct promise were made by him to pay therefor it was unsupported by a valid consideration for the reason, so he claimed, that respondent’s assignors were already obligated under a prior engagement made by them with his son to render the services for the value of which he, the appellant, is now being sued.

The trial court found specifically against appellant on the ■foregoing defenses, and as ground of appeal appellant contends that said findings are unsupported by the evidence.

[731]

Manifestly, however, the evidence is conflicting on the controlling issues; and beyond question the testimony adduced on the part of respondent is more than ample to sustain the conclusions drawn therefrom by the trial court. The essential facts established thereby are as follows: Richard Gump, appellant’s son, consulted W. B. Wright, an attorney then connected with the law offices of Leslie C. Rogers, concerning an action for divorce which Gump’s wife contemplated instituting against him and which Gump stated he did not wish to contest but, on the contrary, desired should be granted as speedily and with as little publicity as possible. Wright advised him that this could be accomplished by merely filing in his behalf a formal, unverified answer to his wife’s complaint, but that if provision were to be made in the decree for the payment of alimony to Mrs. Gump and for the support of their infant child an agreement to that effect should be consummated before the case was heard in court. Negotiations to that end were opened by Wright and shortly thereafter Mrs. Gump’s attorney informed him that Mrs. Gump had altered her plans and intended to sue for separate maintenance instead of a divorce. Gump likewise had no defense to interpose to such an action, and consequently Wright stated that under the circumstances he would devote his. efforts toward securing for him a more favorable settlement agreement than the burdensome one submitted by Mrs. Gump’s attorney. While negotiations therefor were going on and on January 1, 1932, the said Leslie C. Rogers and Messrs. Clark and O’Brien formed a law partnership with which Wright became associated; the Gump matter was taken over as firm business, and during that month a bill for $150 was sent to Gump for services rendered to January 20, 1932. Shortly afterwards and while the bill remained unpaid Gump learned certain facts concerning his wife’s conduct which admittedly entitled him to a divorce; and on February 9, 1932, Gump and Wright brought these new disclosures to the attention of Clark with the request that he take active charge of the case. After going over the matter with Gump, Clark stated that manifestly divorce charges based on the newly discovered facts should be pressed because as the matter then stood Gump was being literally forced, in the action for separate maintenance, to enter into an unreasonable and oppressive settlement agreement with his wife. Clark went