NUTT V. KNUT
Citation | 200 U. S. 12 |
Decision Date | 02 January 1906 |
Court | United States Supreme Court |
ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT
OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
An attorney was employed to prosecute a claim against the United States; the contract which was in writing provided that he should prosecute it before the courts, officers and departments of the government and Congress; that he should receive as compensation a sum equal to a specified percentage of the amount allowed, the payment whereof was made a lien upon the recovery. The prosecution was successful, and the amount allowed was collected by the claimant himself. The attorney sued in the state court on the contract and recovered a judgment, his claim being resisted on the ground that the contract was void under § 3477, Rev.Stat., prohibiting transfers of claims against the United States, and also that being for lobbying services was void against public policy. He also sought a recovery upon a quantum meruit. He moved to dismiss the writ of error on the ground that there was no federal question; held, in affirming the judgment, that
A party who insists in the state court that a judgment cannot be rendered against him consistently with a statute of the United States asserts, within
the meaning of § 709, Rev.Stat., a right and immunity under such statute, although it might not give him a personal or affirmative right, enforceable in direct suit against his adversary, and a writ of error will lie from this Court to review the judgment denying the existence of such right or immunity. The contract, so far as it gave a lien on the amount allowed, was void under § 3477, Rev.Stat., but the provision agreeing to pay the compensation fixed was not in violation of the statute, and could stand alone. The state court having held on evidence taken in that regard that the suit was not one for lobbying services, this Court accepts that view of the case.
This suit was brought in the Chancery Court of Adams County, Mississippi, the plaintiff being S. Prentiss Knut, a defendant in error, and the defendants being the administrator, heirs, and devisees of Haller Nutt, deceased.
It was based upon a written contract between the late James W. Denver and the (then) executrix of Haller Nutt, deceased, as follows:
The petition shows, and it is not disputed, that the plaintiff succeeded to all the rights, whatever they were, of Denver under the above contract, and that, as the result of his labors, Congress at different times appropriated, on account of the Nutt claim, the sums of ,556.17 and ,999.88. 23 Stat. 586, c. 237, 32 Stat. 212, c. 887. Prior to the bringing of the present suit, the plaintiff had received his "due share" of the first appropriation, but has not received his full part of the last one. He therefore sought payment, in accordance with the contract, for the balance due him on account of the said sum of ,999.88, appropriated to and received by the Nutt estate.
The plaintiff subsequently amended his petition and asked that, in the event of his not being entitled to compensation under the Denver contract, he have judgment for such sum as his services were reasonably worth, which he alleged to be ,000.
Some of the defendants by their answers put the plaintiff upon proof of his case, but submitted to the court the question of the reasonableness of his claim for fees.
Upon appeal to the Supreme Court of Mississippi, the judgment was reversed and that court, proceeding to render such decree as, in its opinion, should have been rendered, adjudged that the plaintiff was entitled "to his prayer for 33 1/3 percentum of the amount collected by the administrator (,993.83), in full for any advances made by him and all services," less any payments made. 83 Miss. 365. The cause was remanded for an account to be taken and for an order directing the administrator to pay to Knut any balance of that percent unpaid. The accounting was had in the inferior state court, Knut being charged with ,000 paid...
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