151 Mo. App. 429 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1910
Plaintiff is an attorney at law and instituted this action on an account for legal services alleged to have been performed by him for defendant at the latter’s request. The judgment in the trial court was for plaintiff for the sum of seven hundred dollars.
The account is made up of seven different items; the first is one thousand dollars for attending to a suit of Mason against defendant for breach of promise, which is yet pending. The second is for five dollars for services in taking depositions in another case
The evidence in behalf of plaintiff tended to support the reasonableness of the charges made by him. The jury, however, made such reduction from the estimates thus given as to fix the amount to which he was entitled, after allowing the credits, at seven hundred dollars.'
We are now aslced to reverse the judgment on the ground that the verdict is wholly disproportionate to the service rendered and that it is unconscionable. The appeal to us, as thus made, is somewhat exceptional and extraordinary. Tet it must be admitted that if it should be conceded that the allowance made by the jury was so excessive as to strike against the conscience, we would have the authority and it would be our duty to interfere, notwithstanding the sum allowed was sup*ported by experienced experts in the legal profession. But we cannot so designate or classify the verdict. It is founded on undisputed evidence of the nature of the services rendered defendant; and the reasonableness of the charges made wa.s sustained by witnesses of the highest character. More than this, the point was made before the trial judge who heard the evidence and knew the witnesses.and he thought it not well taken. We therefore feel constrained to reject the earnest appeal made by defendants counsel.
But on the other hand, if the employment is terminated wrongfully by the fault of the employer, before the service is completed, then, in a case of this kind, the plaintiff may recover the reasonable value of his services.
In this case the defendant did not testify and we have nothing to contradict the testimony of the plaintiff, which was to the effect that while he had not been formally discharged, yet defendant had broken off all communication with him and in fact had refused to speak to him. "VVe are warranted in inferring from the evidence that plaintiff’s service in the case has been brought to an end through no fault of his, but through the desire of the defendant, and his conduct, amounting in effect to a wrongful discharge. In such circumstances the fact that the case, for service in which compensation is claimed, is still pending, will not prevent a recovery for whatever the service was worth.