Bounougias v. Peters
| Decision Date | 09 December 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 15481-15482.,15481-15482. |
| Citation | 369 F.2d 247 |
| Parties | Gust BOUNOUGIAS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Norman PETERS and John G. Phillips, Petitioners-Appellees. REPUBLIC STEEL CORPORATION, a Corporation, Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff, v. Alavina O'MALLEY, d/b/a B. Pedersen & Company, Third-Party Defendant. Gust BOUNOUGIAS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Norman PETERS and John G. Phillips, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
John D. Vosnos, James B. Martin, Chicago, Ill., for appellant.
Sidney Z. Karasik and Charles Wolff, Chicago, Ill., for appellee.
Before HASTINGS, Chief Judge, and SWYGERT and CUMMINGS, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal by Gust Bounougias from an adverse judgment of the district court in consolidated cases numbered 15481 and 15482. On appeal, it is contended that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to try these cases.
A recital of the protracted and desultory litigation in this case is necessary in order to place the jurisdictional question presented to us in its proper context.
Bounougias employed appellee, Norman Peters, a Chicago attorney, to represent him in a personal injury claim before the Industrial Commission of Illinois. Peters did so and recovered a settlement for Bounougias. Peters also advised Bounougias that he had a cause of action for the same injury against a third party on whose premises he had been injured, Republic Steel Corporation. Bounougias signed an agreement authorizing Peters to handle the case on a one-third contingent fee basis.
Peters brought a diversity suit for Bounougias in the district court against Republic Steel and Bounougias' employer charging negligence and recovered judgments in favor of Bounougias in the amount of $105,000.00 On appeal, this court affirmed.1
Motions by the defendants in that action to set off from the judgment a workmen's compensation award to Bounougias were denied, and the judgment was satisfied in September, 1960.
In May, 1960, however, prior to the satisfaction of judgment, the original contingent fee contract between Bounougias and Peters was amended so that Peters' contingent fee was raised to one-half of the amount recovered, less expenses. Consideration for this change was stated to be the third party action, the appeal to this court, a petition for rehearing before this court, and the possibility that the defendant might take the case to the United States Supreme Court. This latter possibility did not materialize.
After the satisfaction of judgment in September, 1960, Peters received payment in full in accordance with this later agreement. Appellee John G. Phillips, an attorney who occupied an office in Peters' suite, received a portion of the payment to Peters for his aid in the trial and appeal. There were no further proceedings relating to Bounougias' injuries.
On January 16, 1961, Bounougias instituted a suit against Peters and Phillips in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, charging that the second contingent fee agreement lacked consideration and that it represented unconscionable overreaching by Peters and Phillips.
Peters and Phillips moved for summary judgment in the circuit court. This was granted on April 1, 1963. An appeal was taken to the Appellate Court of Illinois. The Appellate Court affirmed the trial court as to Phillips, but reversed as to Peters.2
The action against Peters was reinstated in the Circuit Court of Cook County. But on November 9, 1964, Peters and Phillips filed a petition in the United States District Court to fix attorneys' fees and for injunctive relief. The district court issued a temporary restraining order, without notice and without bond, restraining Bounougias and his attorney from proceeding further against Peters and Phillips in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
On December 8, 1964, the district court granted a motion of Bounougias to dismiss the petition and to dissolve the temporary restraining order.
Bounougias then attempted to proceed with his case in the state court. Notwithstanding the Illinois Appellate Court's affirmance of summary judgment as to Phillips, Bounougias impleaded Phillips in the action under an amended and supplemental complaint. These proceedings were stayed, however, when Phillips filed a petition in the United States District Court for removal of the case from the state to the federal court.
Bounougias' subsequent motion to remand was denied by the district court. A motion for leave to appeal to this court from such denial was also denied. Bounougias then filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in this court to compel the district court to expunge the order denying the motion to remand and to remand the cause to the state court. This was denied.
The district court then dismissed Phillips from the case and proceeded to trial, but Bounougias, renewing his motion to remand and refusing to recognize the jurisdiction of the district court, refused to participate in the trial. Bounougias having elected to stand mute, the trial judge allowed Peters to present his evidence.
In its judgment, the district court found that it had ancillary jurisdiction over the cause by reason of the prior negligence litigation in the district court and because the conduct of the attorneys in that litigation had been called into question. Judgment was entered in favor of Peters. The instant appeal was taken from this judgment.
Since Peters and Phillips now concede that the district court had no removal jurisdiction, we are...
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In re Coordinated Pretrial Proceedings, Etc.
...concedes that the issue is not inherent jurisdiction, but rather the discretionary exercise thereof. Rectifier cites Bounougias v. Peters, 369 F.2d 247, 249 (7th Cir. 1966); Minersville Coal Co. Inc. v. Anthracite Export Ass'n, 55 F.R.D. 429 (M.D.Pa.1972) and Adams v. Allied Chemical Corp.,......
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Glick v. UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COM'N
...at an end, at least under the law in this circuit. Compare Taylor v. Kelsey, 666 F.2d 53 (4th Cir.1981) (per curiam); Bounougias v. Peters, 369 F.2d 247 (7th Cir.1966), cert. denied, 386 U.S. 983, 87 S.Ct. 1288, 18 L.Ed.2d 232 (1967); and Minersville Coal Co. v. Anthracite Export Ass'n, 55 ......
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Baer v. First Options of Chicago, Inc.
...(holding that district court did not have jurisdiction to resolve fee dispute between party and withdrawing counsel); Bounougias v. Peters, 369 F.2d 247 (7th Cir.1966) (holding that no ancillary jurisdiction existed to hear claim by client against attorneys), cert. denied, 386 U.S. 983, 87 ......
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Nichols v. Longo
...claim between citizens of the same state after the underlying judgment had been satisfied and distributed. See Bounougias v. Peters , 369 F.2d 247, 249 (7th Cir. 1966). There, shortly before the judgment was satisfied, the lawyer-plaintiff contingent fee agreement was modified so that the l......
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LAW, EQUITY, AND SUPPLEMENTAL JURISDICTION.
...district court power over attorneys' fees dispute "as ancillary to its jurisdiction over the principal action"); Bounougias v. Peters, 369 F.2d 247. 249-50 (7th Cir. 1966) (rejecting exercise of ancillary jurisdiction over attorneys' fees intervention where the underlying litigation "was co......