Bacciglieri v. Ghezzi

11 Alaska 93
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedJune 8, 1946
DocketNo. 5359
StatusPublished

This text of 11 Alaska 93 (Bacciglieri v. Ghezzi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bacciglieri v. Ghezzi, 11 Alaska 93 (D. Alaska 1946).

Opinion

PRATT, District Judge.

On the 15th day of March, 1946, the motion of the plaintiff to discharge his attorney, Bailey E. Bell, for cause came on before the Court for hearing. Each appeared in person and introduced his evidence, and the Court granted plaintiff’s motion to discharge his said attorney and entered an order discharging him as attorney in the case.

On the 18th and 19th days of March, 1946, this cause having been theretofore regularly set for trial, came on and was tried, the plaintiff acting as his own attorney. The jury rendered a verdict, finding that plaintiff was ninety per cent totally, permanently disabled from the injury sustained by him as an employee of the defendants set forth in the pleadings in this case. They awarded him the sum of $7358.00 and costs.

On March 26, 1946, the Court, as a part of the judgment in the case, adjudged that a reasonable attorney’s fee for the services performed by Bailey E. Bell in this action, up until his discharge on March 15, 1946, was the sum of [95]*95$300 and that plaintiff should recover that sum from the defendants for said attorney’s fee.

On March 29, 1946, said Bailey E. Bell filed a claim for a $2000 attorney’s fee upon said judgment, alleging that it was “by reason of a contract for legal services based upon a percentage of the amount received by the plaintiff from the defendants, and Insurance Carrier.

“That I was the attorney that filed the suit, and was the attorney of record therein.”

On May 22, 1946, plaintiff filed a motion for an order dismissing said claim of lien of said Bailey E. Bell.

The motion and the accompanying, affidavit, which was not denied, alleged the matters above set forth and the following further matters:

That plaintiff had deposited with the clerk of the above-entitled court a certified check payable to the order of said Bailey E. Bell, in the sum of $300, in full payment of the attorney’s fee allowed by the Court to said Bailey E. Bell; that the defendants were holding up $2000 of the money due plaintiff on the judgment in this case, pending the adjudication of said alleged lien;

That the only understanding plaintiff had with said Bailey E. Bell regarding attorney’s fees was verbal and contingent upon said Bell recovering certain moneys in this case, “but that the said Bailey E. Bell had so mismanaged and mishandled the said case that it was necessary for this Plaintiff to ask for the removal of the said Bailey E. Bell as attorney for this Plaintiff.”

The motion alleged that said Bailey E. Bell was not entitled to any attorney’s fee other than said $300.

This action was brought under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Alaska, of which sections 2200 and 2202, Compiled Laws of Alaska 1933, are a part.

Said sections provide:

“No claim for compensation due hereunder shall be assignable, and all compensation due hereunder shall be exempt from execution.”
[96]*96“In all suits or actions for the recovery of compensation * * * under the provisions hereof, the prevailing party shall be entitled to and the court shall allow in addition to the other costs and disbursements provided by statute, a reasonable attorney’s fee, the same to be fixed by the court, and such attorney’s fee shall be allowed in a sufficient sum to reasonably cover the entire attorney’s fee of the prevailing party in any such suit or action.”

The only provision of the laws of Alaska relative to an attorney’s lien are found in section 702, Compiled Laws of Alaska 1933, which contains the following provisions pertinent to this case:

“An attorney has a lien for his compensation * * *
“Fourth. Upon a judgment to the extent of the costs included therein, or if there be a special agreement, to the extent of the compensation specially agreed on, * *

Said section 702 was passed by congress and approved on June 6, 1900.

Said sections 2200 and 2202 were passed in 1929 and, therefore, would repeal any part of section 702 which was inconsistent with them.

However, as the $300 attorney’s fee allowed was allowed as costs, it would appear that said Bailey E. Bell had a lien on said costs for said amount.

As to whether or not there was a special agreement between plaintiff and said Bell which specially agreed upon definite compensation, the plaintiff’s attorney urged that as the affidavit attached to the motion was not denied and therefore admitted and as the affidavit stated that the agreement between plaintiff and the said Bell was a percentage of moneys to be recovered by said Bell and said Bell had' not recovered any such moneys, no lien attached.

In the light of other matters which will hereinafter be dealt with, the Court does not deem it necessary to pass upon the last mentioned question.

[97]*97In 71 C. J., page 1404, section 1347, it is stated:

“In a number of jurisdictions the compensation acts therein contain provisions prohibiting the assignment of claims for compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act and exempting them from claims of creditors and from levy, execution, attachment, or other remedy for the collection thereof. In such case the employee cannot assign to his attorney an interest in the cause of action. The fund arising from an allowance by the industrial commission under the Workmen’s Compensation Law is exempt from the common-law lien of an attorney on a fund produced by his services, * * *. A claim for attorney's fees cannot become a lien on the award, nor be collected out of it except in the amount approved by the commission, and until the claim for attorney’s fees is so approved the attorney is without authority of law to hold the proceeds of the award without the consent of the claimant.”

In 71 C.J., page 924, section 673, it is stated:

“Express prohibition is made in some of the compensation acts against assignment or transfer of claims for compensation. The purpose of such a provision is to secure the application of an award to the necessities of the injured employee,or his dependents as a substitute for wages and a protection against want and to prevent the dependent and disabled from being public charges. * * * ”

In Dunseath v. Nevada Industrial Commission, 1929, 52 Nev. 104, 282 P. 879, Dunseath, the attorney for an injured employee, sued to compel the commission to pay him $600 for an attorney’s fee out of an increased award to an injured workman. A demurrer to the complaint was sustained, based upon the conclusion of the court that the contract for compensation of the attorney out of the moneys of the award was void under the provisions of section 28 of the Nevada Industrial Insurance Act, St. 1913, c. 111, as amended, St. 1915, c. 190, § 10. The section, in part, reads:

[98]*98“ ‘Compensation payable under this act * * * shall not, prior to the issuance and delivery of the warrant therefor, be assignable; shall be exempt from attachment, garnishment, and execution, and shall not pass to any other person by operation of law.’ ”

The supreme court held (282 P. at page 880) :

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Related

Dunseath v. Nevada Industrial Commission
282 P. 879 (Nevada Supreme Court, 1929)
English v. McCorkle
157 S.W.2d 965 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)

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Bluebook (online)
11 Alaska 93, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bacciglieri-v-ghezzi-akd-1946.