United States v. Jacobs

187 F. Supp. 630
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedNovember 6, 1959
DocketCiv. No. 7459
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 187 F. Supp. 630 (United States v. Jacobs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Jacobs, 187 F. Supp. 630 (D. Md. 1959).

Opinion

THOMSEN, Chief Judge.

Covington & Burling, of Washington, D. C., and Piper & Marbury, of Baltimore, Md., the attorneys who represented Jacobs through most of the trial of this action, have asserted liens for attorneys’ fees and expenses against a check for $20,072.91, payable to the order of Jacobs, which is now in the possession, custody and control of this court. The check represents the proceeds of the judgment which Jacobs recovered on a counterclaim against the United States.

Jacobs had entered into a research and development contract with the Bureau of Ordnance of the Department of the Navy, pursuant to which the government had delivered certain tangible property to him and he had prepared and developed certain drawings, engineering notebooks, and design studies. The government terminated the contract and contended that all such documents were its property, but Jacobs refused to turn them over and this suit was instituted to require him to deliver them to the government. A show cause order was served on Jacobs, who retained Covington & Burling as his counsel. They engaged Piper & Marbury to act with them. No arrangement with respect to fee was made. The immediate problem was to prevent an absolute turn-over order being entered forthwith; this was accomplished, and Jacobs filed an answer and counterclaims. Shortly thereafter he paid to Covington & Burling $1,935 (plus $141.02 for expenses) and to Piper & Marbury $175 for services rendered up to that time.

Additional counterclaims were filed and counsel prepared the case for trial. Difficult questions of fact and law required many prolonged conferences with Jacobs and others and a great deal of legal research. The case came on for trial in November, 1955; the hearings occupied seven days over a period of two weeks. James C. McKay, then an associate and now a partner of Covington & Burling, together with another associate of that firm, represented Jacobs. Toward the end of the trial, Jacobs disagreed with his counsel over a question of strategy — whether one of the counterclaims should be pressed — and reluctantly accepted their advice not to press it. At the conclusion of the evidence and argument of counsel, the court delivered an oral opinion, finding that the documents were not the property of the United States but were the property of Jacobs. However, the court ruled that [633]*633under the general prayer for relief the government was entitled to copy the various documents which had been prepared by Jacobs in connection with his activities under Contract NOrd 10531. The court also found that Jacobs was entitled to recover from the United States $20,-072.91 on two of his counterclaims. Applying the principle that he who seeks equity must do equity, the court conditioned the government’s relief upon its paying Jacobs $20,072.91.

Jacobs promptly repented his acquiescence in his counsel’s advice not to press all of his counterclaims, and a day or two after the trial asked and was granted permission by the court to press the abandoned counterclaims in proper person. He did so, without avail. On appeal by both sides, the decree was affirmed. Jacobs v. United States, 4 Cir., 239 F.2d 459, certiorari denied 353 U.S. 904, 77 S.Ct. 666, 1 L.Ed.2d 666.

The controversy between Jacobs and the government continued. Since he was still unwilling to sign a release, this court directed that the government deliver to the clerk of this court a check for $20,-072.91, payable to Jacobs, to be held by the clerk subject to the further order of the court. Jacobs refused to accept the check, contending that the court should require the government to pay him an additional sum of $1,904.62, the amount of a judgment recovered against him in a state court on July 31, 1957, by the Comptroller of the Treasury, State of Maryland, representing sales and use taxes on property purchased by Jacobs and used by him in connection with the government contract. See Jacobs v. Tawes, D.C., 151 F.Supp. 770, affirmed 4 Cir., 250 F.2d 611; Jacobs Instrument Co. v. Comptroller, 216 Md. 290, 140 A.2d 285. In February, 1958, the Fourth Circuit granted leave to Jacobs to move to reopen his case in this court for the purpose of having adjudicated the liability of the United States for the use and sales taxes in controversy. Jacobs v. United States, 252 F.2d 296. The state court proceeding was terminated in April, 1958, but Jacobs has taken no further action in this court.

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1956, Cov-ington & Burling and Piper & Marbury filed herein papers entitled “Assertion of Lien on Judgment”. Jacobs conferred and corresponded with me about those claims, but has made no formal reply thereto. Nor has he replied to notices of hearing sent him by the clerk of this court and letters which I have written him during the past ten months. After due notice to Jacobs, a hearing was held on December 18, 1958, on the lien claims of his former counsel. Following that hearing, I wrote another letter to Jacobs giving him an opportunity to appear and be heard, but although the letter was delivered, I heard nothing further from him and proceeded with the hearing. Since the hearing I have communicated with Jacobs again and have received a long letter from him stating his position.

On January 2,1959, the State of Maryland asserted a lien on the monies paid into this court by the United States. The alleged lien is in the amount of $1,-504.04, and represents the balance due on the judgment for sales and use taxes. Jacobs has filed no reply to this paper.

The fund on which Covington & Burl-ing and Piper & Marbury claim a lien and out. of which they pray the court to make them an allowance is now in the custody and control of this court, and was created as a direct result of their efforts on behalf of Jacobs in this equity proceeding. It does not appear that Jacobs has any other assets out of which counsel might be able to collect a fee. His discharge of his counsel after they had established his counterclaim prevented the delivery of the check to them, as is the practice in this court and elsewhere in Maryland, and so prevented his counsel from obtaining a possessory lien on the check. There are, therefore, strong equities in favor of allowing a fee out of the fund, if this court has authority to do so.

The contract between Jacobs and Covington & Burling was made in the [634]*634District of Columbia, to be performed partly there, partly in Maryland, but principally in this court, in this equitable action, where jurisdiction is based upon the fact that the United States is the plaintiff. Under those circumstances, federal equity principles should be applied.

In Sprague v. Ticonic Nat. Bank, 307 U.S. 161, 59 S.Ct. 777, 779, 83 L.Ed. 1184, a litigant had established a lien on earmarked funds in an insolvent bank, and by so doing had incidentally, through the principle of stare decisis, established like rights for other depositors, not parties to the suit. She sought an allowance of counsel fees and expenses out of the fund.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Gelley v. Astra Pharmaceutical Products, Inc.
466 F. Supp. 182 (D. Minnesota, 1979)
Sanborn v. Wagner
354 F. Supp. 291 (D. Maryland, 1973)
Brewer v. School Board of Norfolk
456 F.2d 943 (Fourth Circuit, 1972)
Meyerhoff v. Garten
232 F. Supp. 363 (D. Maryland, 1964)
United States v. Jacobs
298 F.2d 469 (Fourth Circuit, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 F. Supp. 630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jacobs-mdd-1959.