Haish v. Payson

• Decision Date: 30 September 1883
• Parties: JACOB HAISHv.GEORGE PAYSON.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

107 Ill. 365

1883 WL 10311 (Ill.)

JACOB HAISH

v.GEORGE PAYSON.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Filed at Ottawa May 10, 1883.Rehearing denied September Term, 1883.

APPEAL from the Appellate Court for the First District;--heard in that court on appeal from the Superior Court of Cook county; the Hon. ELLIOTT ANTHONY, Judge, presiding. This was a suit brought in the Superior Court of Cook county, to recover for legal services rendered. The nature of the case appears sufficiently from the following question, which was propounded to witnesses on the trial:

Question--“This is a suit by George Payson, Esq., a member of the bar of this city, against Jacob Haish, of De Kalb, to recover fees for professional services. Haish had been sued some time about the end of 1876, in the United States Court, in Chicago, for the infringement of certain patents on barbed fence wire. Other parties being sued under the same patents formed an association for their mutual defence, and retained Mr. Payson, Mr. N. C. Gridley, and Messrs. Munday, Evarts & Adcock, as their counsel. Haish joined this union in 1879. The suits--fourteen in all--then went on together, and a very large amount of testimony was taken. They were all tried together before Judges Drummond and Blodgett, argued at great length, taken under advisement, and a decision rendered some seven months thereafter, finding three of the plaintiffs' patents valid, and all of the defendants guilty of infringement. A petition for rehearing was presented by the other defendants, but in this Haish did not join. He had received assurances from one of the plaintiffs' attorneys that he should not be in any way molested,--that he should pay nothing for the past, and have a free license for the future. He accordingly refused to apply for a rehearing. At the request of the plaintiffs' attorney he wrote him a letter, stating that he wanted no rehearing. He went in person to Judge Drummond and told him the same thing, and finally stood up in open court and publicly stated to the court that he was content with the decree then drawn, and was willing to have it entered against him. He also used his influence with the other defendants to settle, which they all finally did; but on his applying to the plaintiffs to carry out their agreement with him he was told that they had made no such promises, and that he could have no better terms than the rest. This he refused to do, and soon after, in January, 1881, he retained Messrs. Munday, Evarts & Adcock to carry on the litigation for him alone, and he also retained Mr. Payson to act with them as counsel. The services here sued for commenced at this time. Mr. Haish had $300,000 invested in his business of making barbed wire, having one manufactory at De Kalb, Illinois, and another at Johnstown, Pennsylvania. These gentlemen accepted his retainer. They at once went to work to see if they could not get a rehearing, or if they failed in that, to prevent an injunction. The court did allow them to re-argue the case, and then held that only two of the plaintiffs' patents had been infringed by Haish. The next question was whether Haish should be enjoined. This question was also argued at length by eminent counsel for the plaintiffs, and Mr. Payson and Munday for Haish, and the court finally decided that no injunction should issue, provided he paid into court every month, to await the final result of the suit, seventy-five cents for every one hundred pounds, the same as had to be paid by the other licensees. The negotiations for a settlement, which had been previously broken off, were now renewed, Mr. Thurston, leading counsel for the patentees, going at once from the court room to Mr. Payson's office for that purpose, but still without success, the patentees not being willing to offer Mr. Haish such terms as he or his counsel were ready to accept. The next step taken by the patentees was to prosecute a suit against one of Mr. Haish's customers in the State of New York, whereupon a petition was prepared by Munday, Evarts & Adcock, and presented to Judge Drummond, for the purpose of preventing the patentees from going on with said suit. Judge Drummond intimated so clearly his opinion that Haish's customers should not be interfered with in that way, that nothing more was done in that suit, and negotiations were again resumed, after long and repeated consultations, Haish's counsel striving all the time to secure for him the most favorable terms, encouraging him to hold out, assuring him of final success in the Supreme Court if his proposition should be rejected by the other side, but at the same time urging him to settle whenever he could do so on proper terms. A settlement was at last effected,--a settlement whereby, it is claimed by Mr. Payson, that Haish secured the following advantages: First, he is released from all claims for past infringements, amounting, according to his own estimate, to $107,000; second, he is allowed to withdraw some $25,000 deposited by him in court; third, he received from the patentees $10,000 in cash; and fourth, he obtains a license under all their patents for fourteen years, the same as all their licensees, with the following important...