Walton v. Broglio

Opinion

PARAS, J.

Plaintiff, an attorney, appeals from a judgment of the Superior Court of Calaveras County cancelling a $7,500 note for attorneys’ fees, executed by defendants.

[402]

Defendant Joseph Broglio was arrested in San Francisco on July 26, 1972, and indicted for violation of section 523 of the Penal Code: sending threatening letters with intent to extort money. Upon his arrest, Joseph telephoned his wife Angelina and asked her to call Mr. Lucas, an attorney who was then associated with plaintiff, to arrange bail. The Broglios were business clients of the plaintiff’s law firm at that time, although they had not met plaintiff himself.

The next day Mr. Lucas advised the Broglios that plaintiff would be handling the case because of his greater expertise in criminal matters and the four of them met together. Plaintiff agreed to represent the Broglios for a fee of $15,000. Although Joseph Broglio testified that he never said “Yes” or “No” to any question as to the matter of fees, it is undisputed that this was the amount stated by plaintiff, and that plaintiff later actually did represent Mr. Broglio on the criminal charge. The Broglios paid $4,000 cash to plaintiff at the first interview on July 27, 1972, and were to bring in the remainder within a few days. When it became apparent that they could not pay the entire fee immediately, plaintiff requested $3,500 more in cash, and a promissory note for $7,500. The note was signed on August 10, 1972; the $3,500 was never paid.

With regard to the note, Mrs. Broglio testified: “I recall that the first time Mr. Walton asked us to sign this note he kind of pushed it over like; so we didn’t sign it on that day. I don’t recall the days. But then on the second day, which obviously is the 10th of August that we had another conference with him, he asked us to sign, and it was not eagerly. We hesitated, because $15,000 is an awful lot of money; so he was very firm, very kind, but very firm, and he said, ‘You’ve got to sign this, because otherwise I’ll not have anything to do with it.’ So, scared as we were, a traumatic experience that we were undergoing, what are you going to do? You sign. I don’t want my husband to go to jail, and certainly we are going to have an attorney try to do something for us; so I feel truly it was under duress.”