Spangler v. Sellers

5 F. 882, 5 Ohio F. Dec. 121, 1881 U.S. App. LEXIS 2103
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1881
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 5 F. 882 (Spangler v. Sellers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Spangler v. Sellers, 5 F. 882, 5 Ohio F. Dec. 121, 1881 U.S. App. LEXIS 2103 (uscirct 1881).

Opinion

Swing, D. J.

The petition avers substantially that in the year 1870 the plaintiff, at the special instance and request of the defendant, had retained and employed the defendant as an attorney and counseller at law, for certain fees and rewards to said defendant, to prosecute and conduct and manage a certain action to be commenced in the court of common pleas within and for the county of Miami, in tlie state of Ohio, and to prosecute, conduct, and manage said lawsuit through the different courts to which it might be taken, by appeal or otherwise, until the final termination thereof, and the said defendant then and there accepted and entered upon said retainer and employment; said action to be brought by the said plaintiff against Daniel Brown, Eliza II. Brown, et al. The nature and object of said action was as follows: That at the October term of the court of common pleas of Coshocton county, Ohio, for 1869, Thomas Moore and Thomas Dix, partners, recovered a .judgment against Daniel Brown, Albert Christy, and Alexander H. Spangler, the plaintiff, on a certain promissory note, whereon the said Daniel Brown was .liable as principal, and the said Albert Christy and plaintiff were liable as sureties only of the said Daniel Brown; that on the thirtieth of November, 1869, execution was issued upon said judgment to the sheriff of Miami county against the said Daniel Brown, which was afterwards returned, indorsed: “Received, this writ December 4, 1869, and delivered the same to M. A. Evans, my successor, January 3, 1870;” which was afterwards returned, on the fourth of January, 1870, indorsed, “No goods or chattels,lands or tenements, [884]*884found whereon to levy;” that the plaintiff, as such security, did, on the thirtieth day of February, 1870, pay on said judgment the sum of $1,928.90, in full, of said judgment, except costs, and on the fourteenth day of April, 1870, he paid the costs, amounting to $27.92; that the plaintiff, on the twenty-sixth day of January, 1870, procured an execution to issue upon said judgment against the said Daniel Brown, which said execution, for the want of goods and chattels belonging to said Brown, was levied upon certain-described real estate. The petition alleges that on the twenty-sixth day of June, A. D. 1868, the said Brown, being largely involved in debt, and in order to hinder, delay, and defraud his creditors, and prevent the collection of claims against him, and particularly the claim of the plaintiff, did make and execute a deed for said real estate to his son, Cyrus T. Brown, and the said Cyrus T. Brown did, on the same day, execute a deed, and thereby convey the same real estate to his mother, wife of said Daniel T. Brown; that said conveyances were kept secret, and the said deeds were not recorded or presented for record until about the twenty-ninth day of August, 1869; that said conveyances were fraudulent and without consideration; and that the other of said defendants h'ad or claimed to have liens of various kinds upon said property, by judgment or otherwise; and that said conveyances were a cloud upon the title of the said Daniel Brown.

The prayer of the petition filed by said plaintiff in said ■case was that said defendants answer, setting up their claims, and that the said conveyances of Daniel Brown to Cyrus Brown, and of Cyrus Brown to Eliza N. Brown, be set aside and declared null and void, and the said real estate be subjected to the payment of the indebtedness of the said Daniel Brown,, according to priority, and for general relief.

The petition shows that the cause was tried upon the pleadings and evidence by the common pleas court of Miami •county, at its October term for 1870, and a judgment was rendered, finding the amount of $2,072.83 <iue the plaintiff, and that the conveyances were void as against' said claim, and ordering the property sold in satisfaction thereof; that the de[885]*885fendants Daniel, Cyrus, and Eliza 1ST. Brown legally appealed the case to the district court of said county; and that the district court, at its April terra, A. D. 1871, tried the case, and found that the allegations of the said plaintiff in his petition were untrue, and ordered that the petition as to him be dismissed, with costs. Whereupon it became the duty of the defendant, under and in pursuance of his said employment and contract as an attorney at law with the plaintiff, after said judgment, to file a motion for a new trial of said action, in order that said case might properly and legally be taken to the supreme court of the state of Ohio for final adjudication and decision therein. Yet the defendant, not regarding his said duty, did not nor would prosecute or manage said action with due and proper care, skill, and diligence; but, on the contrary thereof, prosecuted, conducted, and managed said action in a careless,unskilful, and improper manner, in this, to-wit: that the said defendant, after the rendition of said judgment and order in said action against the said plaintiff in said district court, failed, neglected, and refused to make and file in said district court a motion for a new trial in said action, and negligently and unskilfully attempted to take said case to the supreme court upon petition in error, without having previously made and filed a motion for a new trial of said action.

The said defendant, in so attempting to take said case to the supreme court, prepared in said case a bill of exceptions embodying the record, and all the evidence therein, and after-wards, on the fifteenth day of June, A. D. 1872, applied for and obtained leave to file said petition in error; and after-wards, at the December term of the supreme court for 1875, the said action came on to be heard upon said petition in error in said supreme court, when said court refused to consider said case, and dismissed said petition in error at the costs of the plaintiff, and affirmed the said judgment and order of the district court, for the reason that no motion for a new trial of said action had been filed, made, and overruled by the district court; and the plaintiff says that, by reason of the negligence and want of due skill of the defendant in [886]*886the management and conducting his said action, the plaintiff was in the supreme court nonsuited, whereby he wa« and has been hindered and prevented from recovering his claim from said Daniel Brown, but is likely to lose the same. Said Brown, at the time of the commencement of the action, was and still is totally insolvent; and the real estate which the plaintiff sought by said action to subject to the payment of his claim being amply sufficient in value to have paid in full said claim, with costs.

The plaintiff says he has been compelled to pay costs expended in said action on the twenty-fourth of June, A. D. 1876, $128; and on the seventeenth day of June, 1875, at the request of the defendant, he advanced to him the sum of $75, as defendant represented, for the purpose of paying costs and charges of prosecuting said case in the supreme court; and the plaintiff incurred other large expenses and costs in the prosecution of said case, whereby the plaintiff hath sustained damages in the sum of $4,000. Whereupon the plaintiff prays judgment against the defendant for said sum of $4,000, his damages so as aforesaid sustained, and for all proper relief. To the petition the defendant interposed a general demurrer.

The first question which presents itself for consideration is the contract between the parties as stated in the petition.

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Bluebook (online)
5 F. 882, 5 Ohio F. Dec. 121, 1881 U.S. App. LEXIS 2103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spangler-v-sellers-uscirct-1881.