Orwig v. Dixon

1926 OK 415, 247 P. 47, 121 Okla. 36, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 40
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 27, 1926
Docket15686
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1926 OK 415 (Orwig v. Dixon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Orwig v. Dixon, 1926 OK 415, 247 P. 47, 121 Okla. 36, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 40 (Okla. 1926).

Opinion

LESTER, J.

The parties to this action occupy the same position as in the trial court.

The plaintiffs brought this action to foreclose an attorney’s lien on 80 acres of land situated in Seminole county. The couru, upon trial of the cause, rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in the sum of $750 and decreed a first lien upon one-halí of the land to satisfy said amount and cost. The plaintiffs prosecute this appeal to reverse the action of the trial court.

The land in question, upon which the plaintiffs sought to, foreclose said lien, is described as follows: The south'half of the southwest quarter of section thirty-two (32), town ship nine (9) north, range seven (7) east, and containing,. 80' acres. On account of the issue herein presented it will be necessary to refer frequently to the east 40 and the west 40, which compose the above-described land.

It appears from the record that the plaintiffs, as attorneys, were employed by Jack Cudjo and Mary Cudjo to represent them in removing certain instruments from record, which instruments constituted a cloud upon the title to the above-described lands. The plaintiffs herein prosecuted said action successfully in the district court and caused to be canceled certain instruments which constituted a cloud upon the title to the lands of their clients. When the plaintiffs herein, as attorneys for Jack Cudjo and Mary Cudjo, filed an action in court to cancel the said instrument, said plaintiffs indorsed their lien claim for attorney’s fees upon the petition and pleadings in said cause. And thereafter, when the judgment was rendered in said proceedings, the said plaintiffs herein caused to be indorsed opposite the judgment contained in the judgment docket their lien claim for said services.

After the suit by Jack Cudjo and Mary Cudjo had been instituted and filed in the district court to quiet title to said land, they executed a mortgage on said land to the Eirst Guaranty Bank of Wewoka, Okla. (which bank has since become insolvent). After the judgment was had in the district court quieting title to the said lands of Jack Cudjo and Mary Cudjo, they then deeded to, the plaintiffs in this case the east 40 thereof, and said attorneys) claim and assert that such deed was taken' by them from the said Jack Cudjo and Mary Cudjo upon the condition. that when the said grantors of said deed should satisfy and cause the mortgage to be discharged, which was held by the First Guaranty Bank on said land, the said attorneys should then have their original attorney’s lien reimpressed on the entire tract of land for the purpose of satisfying their claim for services, and that the said deed so received by them should be treated as a nullity.

It further appears that the said Jack Cud-jo and Mary Cudjo failed and neglected to satisfy the mortgage executed by them to the First Guaranty Bank. It further appears that a second mortgage was executed by Jack and Mary Cudjo to the plaintiffs herein to the west 40 acres of the said tract of land. It appears that this mortgage was *37 executed for and on account of an additional consideration of $250, and that tlie consideration for this mortgage was not in any way connected with the original services rendered by the attorneys in quieting title to said lands. During the time that the several instruments were on record pertaining to said land, it appears that J. L. Dixon and M. L. Trimble, two of the defendants in this action, obtained by transfer the mortgage executed by Jack Cudjoi and Mary Oudjo on ■ said land to the First Guaranty Bank. It further appears that Dixon and Trimble entered into negotiations with the plaintiffs herein for the purpose of discharging the second mortgage on the west 40, and that they thereafter discharged the said mortgage by paying to the plaintiffs herein the sum of $250. Said Dixon and Trimble assert and allege that it was understood by and between them and the plaintiffs herein that by paying unto the said plaintiffs the sum of $250, it would be in full- satisfaction of all claims and liens then held by said attorneys on said west 40.

Upon trial the court, over the objection of the defendants, permitted the plaintiffs .to amend their petition to the effect that the plaintiffs be permitted to recover quantum meruit. At the conclusion of the evidence, the' court- found that the plaintiffs had released their lien on the west 40, and permitted the plaintiffs to recover the sum of $750 on quantum meruit, and further decreed that they have a first and prior lien for said sum on the east 40.

The plaintiffs assign numerous errors upon the part of the trial court, and insist that on account of such errors the cause should be reversed.

The evidence upon the part of the plaintiffs was very indefinite as to what were the terms of the contract between the plaintiffs and their clients relative to the terms and manner of compensation which plaintiffs should receive for their services. The plaintiffs in their petition state and allege in part:

“By the terms of said employment the said Jack Oudjo and Mary Cudjo promised and agreed verbally to> pay or grant and convey to these plaintiffs the one-half, or fifty (50%) per cent., of the net amount of said property recovered by these plaintiffs under said employment, contingent on recovery, and that said fifty (50%) per cent, of said property was thus agreed upon by said Jack Oud-jo "ánd Mary Oudjo as the attprney’s fee for these plaintiffs under said employment.”

The statut-e which, the plaintiffs insist, gives_sanction to this character of contract is to be found in section 4101, C. O. S. 1921, and reads as follows:

“It shall be lawful for an attorney to contract for a percentage or portion of the proceeds of a client’s cause of action or claim not to exceed fifty per centum of the net amount of such judgment as may jje recovered, or such compromise as may be made, whether the same arises ex contractu or ex delicto, and no compromise or settlement entered int-o by a client without such attorney’s, consent shall affect or abrogate the lien provided for in this chapter.”

It will be noticed that this statute permits an attorney and client to agree upon a contract not to exceed 50 per cent, of the net amount of such judgment as may be recovered. It is apparent that the Legislature, in permitting an attorney and client to agree upon 50 per cent., had in mind that the attorney in such case should by and through his services as an attorney obtain in said action a judgment for, and on behalf of such client, property or money over which the client was out of possession. The judgment obtained in this case through the services of the attorneys was not a money judgment, nor was it a judgment for the recovery of real estate from which the clients had been dispossessed. The attorneys, so employed, caused to be canceled certain void instruments which constituted a cloud only on the property of the plaintiffs’ clients. The plaintiffs in the instant case introduced in evidence the petition that they had caused to be filed as attorneys for Jack Oudjo and Mary Cud jo-, and paragraph 1 of said petition reads as follows:

“That the said plaintiffs are the owners of the fee-simple title in and to the south half of the southwest- quarter of section thirty-two, township nine north, range seven east, Seminole county, state of Oklahoma, and are in peaceable possession, thereof and residing therein.”

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1935 OK 555 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
1926 OK 415, 247 P. 47, 121 Okla. 36, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 40, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/orwig-v-dixon-okla-1926.