Guthrie v. Home Building & Loan Co.

Decision Date12 October 1934
Citation116 Fla. 822,156 So. 882
PartiesGUTHRIE v. HOME BUILDING& LOAN CO.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

En Banc.

Bill by William C. Guthrie against the Home Building & Loan Company. From a decree dismissing the bill as being without equity complainant appeals.

Decree modified in accordance with opinion, and, as so modified affirmed. Appeal from Circuit Court, Duval County; DeWitt T. Gray, judge.

COUNSEL

H. L Anderson, of Jacksonville, for appellant.

Milam McIlvaine & Milam, of Jacksonville, for appellee.

OPINION

DAVIS Chief Justice.

An amended bill filed by Guthrie alleged that complainant, an attorney at law, was employed by appellee, Home Building & Loan Company, to foreclose certain mortgages and render certain other legal services, for which complainant should be declared to have a lien, which should be enforced against the appellee's properties. The chancellor dismissed the bill as being without equity. Complainant has appealed.

Since this cause was decided in the court below, this court has concluded some of the propositions involved herein, by its decision rendered in the case of Scott v. Kirtley, 152 So. 721. See, also, Alyea v. Hampton (Fla.) 150 So. 242, and Smith v. Tydings, 100 Fla. 1414, 131 So. 319.

If, as attempted to be alleged in the amended bill of complaint, the complainant has an equitable interest to be subserved by the payment over to him of certain moneys that are due to be paid to him from time to time by defendant when and as certain lands and properties foreclosed upon (to which it is alleged defendant has acquired the title by reason of the legal services furnished by complainant in that behalf) are resold by the defendant and the purchase price thereof realized by it, complainant may have an equity against defendant in the nature of a right to specific performance of the defendant's agreement to pay over to him, as the rightful recipient thereof, those moneys which when and after receipt would constitute complainant's attorney's fees, and concerning which defendant would be charged with a liability to account because of the trust nature of the underlying transactions and relationship between the parties heretofore transpiring with reference thereto.

But neither the original bill nor the amended bill seems to have been framed on any such theory, but rather on the theory that complainant has a present lien against the properties themselves, not on the...

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6 cases
  • Billingham v. Thiele
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • July 30, 1958
    ...a suit to establish the clients' title, or recovered title or possession for the client, and cites the case of Guthrie v. Home Building & Loan Co., 116 Fla. 822, 156 So. 882, as authority for the majority rule. Then, in 5 Am.Jur., Attorney at Law, Section 238, the same rule is set out, but ......
  • Billingham v. Thiele
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • March 11, 1959
    ...to establish the client's title or recover possession. To support its position the Court of Appeal relied on Guthrie v. Home Building and Loan Company, 116 Fla. 822, 156 So. 882; Greenfield Villages, Inc. v. Thompson, Fla.1952, 44 So.2d 679; Stern v. Stern, Fla.1951, 50 So.2d 119. In additi......
  • Marshall v. Casteel
    • United States
    • Nebraska Supreme Court
    • November 26, 1943
    ... ... proceeding, Guthrie v. Home Building & Loan Co., 116 Fla ... 822, 156 So. 882, in the ... ...
  • Matter of Fidelity Standard Mortg. Corp., Bankruptcy No. 82-00637-BKC-JAG
    • United States
    • U.S. Bankruptcy Court — Southern District of Florida
    • October 25, 1984
    ...successfully prosecuted a suit to establish a client's title or recover title or possession for the client. Guthrie v. Home Building & Loan Company, 116 Fla. 822, 156 So. 882 (1934); Billingham v. Thiele, 107 So.2d 238 (2nd DCA Fla.1958), cert. dismissed, 109 So.2d 763. Overholser v. Walsh ......
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