King v. Acuff

Citation218 Ala. 619,119 So. 833
Decision Date24 January 1929
Docket Number6 Div. 258
PartiesKING et al. v. ACUFF.
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama

Appeal from Circuit Court, Walker County; R.L. Blanton, Judge.

Bill in equity by J.D. Acuff against Rufus King and others, to enforce a lien for attorney's fees. From a decree overruling a demurrer to the bill, respondents appeal. Reversed and remanded.

J.B Powell, of Jasper, for appellants.

J.J Ray and R.A. Cooner, both of Jasper, for appellee.

SAYRE J.

Appellee in this cause filed his bill to enforce an alleged lien under section 6262 of the Code. The litigation out of which the lien is supposed to have arisen was prosecuted by appellee on behalf of appellants and others under the authority of section 9905 of the Code, which provides for suits in equity to settle the title to lands and to clear up all doubts or disputes concerning the same.

Appellee's alleged lien is based upon the third subdivision of section 6262, wherein it is provided that attorneys at law shall have a lien "upon all suits for the recovery of real or personal property, and upon all judgments or decrees for the recovery of the same, attorneys at law shall have a lien on the property recovered," etc.

We are not disposed to any narrow construction of the statute (section 6262) creating a lien in favor of attorneys (6 C.J 768, § 365). But the lien cannot be extended beyond the fair intendment of the statute, the effect of which, in agreement with the principles of the common law, is to place the attorney in the position of an equitable assignee of the judgment obtained by him for his client. Ex parte Lehman Durr & Co., 59 Ala. 631; Mosely v. Norman, 74 Ala 422; Warfield v. Campbell, 38 Ala. 527, 82 Am.Dec. 724. The statute has broadened this lien to some extent, has indicated the legislative preference for the substance and incidents of the lien as declared in the Georgia statute which has been adopted, but there is still no warrant under which the court can extend the lien to cases not to be found in the language of the common law or the statute. The third subdivision of section 6262 creates, or at least defines, a lien in favor of attorneys "on the property recovered." This feature of the statute is more than once referred to in our recent case of Owens v. Bolt (Ala.Sup.) 118 So. 590. Appellee's bill fails to show any property recovered for his clients in the proceedings out of which his lien is alleged to have arisen. He recovered a judgment or decree for his clients, appellants, but for the court now to pass a decree declaring him to be the equitable assignee of that judgment or decree to any extent whatever would accomplish nothing to appellee's advantage; this, because the decree merely denies that defendants in the original cause, out of which the lien here in question is supposed to have arisen, had any interest in the property there made the subject of litigation. There was no recovery of...

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9 cases
  • Shelby Roden LLC v. Horton
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of Alabama
    • 26 d3 Outubro d3 2022
    ...as was done in the cases, supra, the suit was dismissed. There is, therefore, no ‘suit' upon which a lien could attach.”); King v. Acuff, 218 Ala. 619, 619 & 620, 119 So. 833, 833 & 834 (Ala. 1929) (“[T]he lien [in favor of attorneys] cannot be extended beyond the fair intendment of the sta......
  • Prudential Ins. Co. of America v. Byrd
    • United States
    • Georgia Supreme Court
    • 17 d1 Julho d1 1939
    ... ... repairs made do not appear to have been inquired into at the ...          King, ... Hitz & Partridge, of Atlanta, for Prudential Ins. Co. of ...          Hooper & Hooper and Robt. B. Blackburn, all of Atlanta, for ... successfully defending his client's title to real or ... personal property against an adverse claim thereto (King ... v. Acuff, 218 Ala. 619, 119 So. 833; Owens v ... Gunther, 75 Ark. 37, 86 S.W. 851, 5 Ann.Cas. [188 Ga ... 530] 130; Avey v. Via, 225 Ky. 155, 7 S.W.2d ... ...
  • Ex parte Clanahan, 2 Div. 332
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • 20 d4 Maio d4 1954
    ...the same power over the suit as the client. In the other, he is merely granted power to enforce his lien.' In the case of King v. Acuff, 218 Ala. 619, 119 So. 833, this court held that subsection 3 must not be extended beyond the fair intendment of the statute. In that case the attorney for......
  • Steele v. First Nat. Bank
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • 17 d4 Dezembro d4 1936
    ... ... the lien does not attach (citing section 6262, Code; ... Jackson v. Clopton, 66 Ala. 29; Hale v ... Tyson, 202 Ala. 107, 109, 79 So. 499; King v ... Acuff, 218 Ala. 619, 119 So. 833; Johnson v. Riddle ... & Ellis, 204 Ala. 408, 409, 85 So. 701; Mosely v ... Norman, 74 Ala. 422, 426; ... ...
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