Combs' Admr. v. Va. Iron, Coal & Coke Co.
| Decision Date | 25 November 1930 |
| Citation | 236 Ky. 524 |
| Parties | Combs' Administrator v. Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Company. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
1. Attorney and Client. — Agreement that attorney's compensation depended on amount recovered through his services impliedly authorized him to collect any sum adjudged by court.
2. Attorney and Client. — Unauthorized compromise by attorney may be ratified by client, and ratification may be implied from negligence or inattention or apparent acquiescence therein.
3. Attorney and Client. — It is client's duty, having knowledge of attorney's settlement of case, to express disapproval within reasonable time.
4. Attorney and Client. — Where attorney has recovered judgment for client, he has authority, by virtue of employment as attorney, to receive payment and enter satisfaction.
5. Attorney and Client. — Payment to attorney recovering judgment is as effective in discharging claim as if made to client.
6. Attorney and Client. — Deed which attorney for defendants delivered, bearing defendants' purported signature, acknowledged before deputy court clerk, was prima facie properly executed relative to payment to attorney (Ky. Stats., sec. 3760).
7. Acknowledgment. — Verity is to be accorded to certificate of acknowledgment of deed under statutes (Ky. Stats., sec. 3760).
8. Attorney and Client — Where attorney for defendants in specific performance suit, recovering money judgment against plaintiff therein, received amount of judgment from plaintiff and absconded, execution on judgment was properly quashed.
In specific performance suit, decree directed defendants to convey property with judgment over against plaintiff for balance of recited consideration, $913.91. After court had rendered decision, but before judgment was entered on order book, defendants' attorney went to plaintiff's agent and stated clients would settle by accepting consideration, provided plaintiff would pay court costs, and this he agreed to do. Attorney delivered deed signed by defendants by mark and acknowledged before deputy county court clerk, and produced his contract of employment, and a paper purporting to have been signed by his clients by their mark, requesting that check be given to attorney, and plaintiff's agent then gave attorney draft payable to his clients, which attorney cashed by indorsing names of his clients, by himself as attorney, and thereafter absconded.
Appeal from Perry Circuit Court.
S.M. WARD for appellant.
JESSE MORGAN for appellee.
The appeal involves the right of the appellant to recover of a judgment creditor money shown to have been paid debtor's attorney, and with which, it appears, he absconded.
In 1918 the Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Company sued Jesse Combs and his wife, Rachel Combs, for specific performance of a contract to convey certain mineral rights. On April 9, 1923, a decree directing such performance was entered with a judgment over against the plaintiff for the balance of the recited consideration, $913.91. In that suit Combs had employed J.M. Dixon as his attorney on a contingent fee equal to one-half the sum recovered for or saved him, and he employed the firm of Faulkner & Stanfill to assist him. After the court had rendered his decision, but apparently before the judgment was entered on the order book, Dixon went to the agent of the Virginia Company, who was then in ignorance of developments, and stated his clients would settle by accepting the consideration provided the company would pay court costs. This was agreed to. He obtained from the agent a deed which had been prepared and later returned with it, signed by Combs and his wife, each by mark, and acknowledged before Dixon as a deputy county court clerk. The attorney produced his contract of employment, and also a paper dated April 4, 1923, purporting to have been signed by his clients by their mark and by Elihu Wells, father of Mrs. Combs, as witness, requesting that check be given to Dixon. Dixon obtained the signature of Mr. Stanfill to a receipt for the money, and, upon surrender of these papers, the agent of the company gave Dixon a draft payable to Combs and his wife. This draft was cashed by Dixon, who indorsed the names of his clients by himself as attorney. It appears that a few days thereafter Dixon departed for parts unknown. He paid no part of it to his co-counsel.
The judgment entered on April 9, 1923, was never released or satisfied of record. Jesse Combs died about two years afterward, and no execution was issued or other attempt made to collect the judgment for the consideration until six years afterward. On April 8, 1929, the administrator of Jesse Combs, and the widow, Rachel, had an execution issued. The Virginia Company filed verified motion to quash it, which set forth facts showing there had been a satisfaction of the judgment. Demurrer to the motion was overruled, and answer filed denying its material averments, including the execution of the deed and the payment of the money, and pleading affirmatively that the judgment had never been satisfied in whole or in part, and that the purported deed and order to pay the money to Dixon were forgeries.
In addition to evidence above recited, Mrs. Combs...
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