Jenkins v. Stephens

• Decision Date: 31 January 1878
• Citation: 60 Ga. 216
• Parties: Jenkins, for use, etc. v. Stephens, administratrix, et at.*
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

60 Ga. 216

Jenkins, for use, etc. v. Stephens, administratrix, et at.*

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(January Term, 1878.)

60 Ga. 216

[Jackson, Judge, did not preside in this case on account of providential cause.]

Attorney and client. Lien. Before Judge PoTTLE. Hancock Superior Court. October Adjourned Term, 1877.

Reported in the decision.

J. T. Jordan, for plaintiff in error.

C. W. DuBose, for defendant.

Warner, Chief Justice.

This was a rule against the sheriff for money collected on a fi. fa. placed in his hands by the plaintiff therein. The sheriff answered that he had the money in hand, but had been served with a notice by Mary W. Stephens, administratrix of Linton Stephens, deceased, to hold said money, as her intestate had a lien upon it as an attorney at law, until the money could be disposed of by the order of the court. The plaintiff in fi. fa. traversed the sheriff's return, and alleged that Mrs. Stephen's intestate had no lien upon the money in the sheriff's hands for services rendered by him as an attorney at law. Upon the trial of the issue thus formed, the jury, under the charge of the court, found a verdict in favor of the administratrix for the sum of $125.00. A motion was made for a new trial on the grounds therein stated, which was overruled, and the plaintiff excepted.

1. It appears from the evidence in the record, that Judge Stephens, as the attorney of plaintiff\'s intestate, obtained a *judgment in the superior court in her favor against Whitten, the defendant therein; that the case was carried up to the supreme court, the judgment affirmed, and that judgment was made the judgment of the superior court in 1866. This judgment, for some reason not explained, was allowed to become dormant, the defendant therein being entirely solvent. After Judge Stephens\' death, this dormant judgment was revived, and the ft. fa. which brought the money into court issued thereon. The services of Judge Stephens in the superior and supreme courts, rendered in the case, were proved to have been worth $200.00. The first judgment was a debt of record, and the attorney\'s Hen for services rendered in obtaining that judgment attached thereto, and was not defeated because it lost its lien on the defendant\'s property by becoming dormant under the statute; it was still a judgment debt obtained by the services of the attorney.

2. It was urged on the argument, that the plaintiff had been injured by the neglect of the attorney in not enforcing the...