McLean's Adm'r v. Bragg

• Decision Date: 31 March 1860
• Citation: 30 Mo. 262
• Parties: MCLEAN'S ADMINISTRATOR, Respondent, v. BRAGG, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

30 Mo. 262

MCLEAN'S ADMINISTRATOR, Respondent,

v.BRAGG, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1860.

1. The supreme court will not grant new trials on the ground that the verdicts are against the evidence.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court.

Edward C. Blackburn and Milton N. McLean were partners as attorneys at law. McLean died, and the plaintiff, Ricords, was appointed administrator of his estate. Blackburn also died, and said Ricords then took charge of the partnership effects, giving bond as required by the statute. It is in this capacity, having in charge the settling up the affairs of the partnership, that the plaintiff now sues. The facts sufficiently appear in the opinion of the court.

H. N. Hart, for appellant.

Cline & Jamison, for respondent.

EWING, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action brought by Ricords, as administrator of the estates of Blackburn and McLean, to recover five hundred and seventy-seven dollars and fifty cents for professional services alleged to have been rendered by said Blackburn and McLean as attorneys at law for said Bragg. An account is filed with the petition setting forth the items, two of which are two hundred and fifty dollars for prosecuting and defending libel suits, the defendant being plaintiff in one and defendant in the other. The services in these cases are admitted in the answer, but it alleges the charges therefor to be unreasonable. As to the balance of the account, some of the items are denied, and the services in the others are admitted, but the reasonableness of the charges denied. The cause was tried by a jury, and a verdict rendered for plaintiff for five hundred and ninety-four dollars, of which twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents were remitted by the plaintiff.

No instructions were asked by either party, and none given by the court; and the record presents no question of law for our revision. On the part of the plaintiff it was proved that the fees of two hundred and fifty dollars each were very reasonable for the services rendered by Messrs. Blackburn & McLean, and as to one of them this statement was corroborated by the defendant's evidence. The testimony on the part of the defendant also shows that Messrs. Blackburn & McLean died before one of the suits--McLean v. Bragg--was finally determined, and that another attorney was employed by the defendant after their death to defend it; that it was finally compromised by the payment to McLean of one thousand dollars,...