Trowbridge v. Dean

• Decision Date: 24 April 1879
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: Luther S. Trowbridge and Morgan E. Dowling et al. v. Nathan Dean

40 Mich. 687

Luther S. Trowbridge and Morgan E. Dowling et al. v. Nathan Dean

Supreme Court of Michigan

April 24, 1879

Submitted April 17, 1879

Error to Jackson. Submitted April 17. Decided April 24.

Judgment reversed with costs and a new trial ordered.

Trowbridge & Dowling for plaintiffs in error.

Gibson & Parkinson for defendant in error.

Graves J. The other Justices concurred.

OPINION

Graves J.

Plaintiffs in error made claim against defendant in error for professional services rendered as they alleged at his express request and for his benefit in connection with bankruptcy proceedings prosecuted against the firm of Young & Dean, defendant in error being the father of the latter member of that firm and having a direct pecuniary interest in the proceedings.

The claim being put in suit before a justice, the plaintiffs in error recovered $ 150 and the defendant in error appealed and in the circuit court the jury found for the defendant. The case comes up on a bill of exceptions, and the only charges of error insisted on relate to rulings in respect to the admission of evidence.

The mode of submission to the jury is not complained of. The liability was contested upon the ground that defendant in error never employed the plaintiffs, and the chief evidence on which they relied to prove the fact of employment consisted of correspondence. After the institution of the bankruptcy proceedings against Young & Dean, Mr. Young of that firm engaged the plaintiffs to help him, and their position as counsel for Young, or Young & Dean, and their course taken in connection with special efforts to bring about a compromise between the firm creditors and the alleged bankrupts seem to have led to the transactions which have given rise to the present controversy.

One of the matters agitated was that defendant had received certain conveyances from his son which the creditors of Young & Dean would assail through the assignee in bankruptcy unless a compromise should be effected.

Mr Dean resided at Parma and the plaintiffs at Detroit, and Mr. McGee of Jackson was a local adviser of the former. Mr. Dowling testified that defendant in error in person or through McGee, his attorney, authorized plaintiffs to see what could be done in effecting a compromise with three or four of the creditors who were unwilling to take fifty per cent., and to notify him by letter, and that after consulting Mr. Dickinson,...