115 Ky. 313 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1903
Affirming.
D. R. Allen and W. H. Collopy were rival candidates at the November election, 1899, for a seat in the lower house of the General Assembly of Kentucky, in and for the Eighty-First Legislative District. Collopy received the certificate of election to- the office in question, but his right thereto was denied by Allen, who claimed to have been elected; and he thereupon instituted a contest for the office before the General Assembly upon the meeting of that body, in which contest he was unsuccessful. Upon the termination of the contest, the General Assembly, by an act entitled “An act appropriating money,” which became a law on March 23, 1900 (Laws 1900, p. 82, c. 27), duly appropriated to the use of Allen and Collopy the sum of $250 each, wherewith to pay attorney’s fees and other expenses incurred by them, respectively, in the contest. For the $250 thus appropriated for the benefit of Allen a voucher was issued by the Auditor of the State of Kentucky, payable to the appellant T. F. Hallam, as attorney for Allen, who caused the same to be presented to the Treasurer of the State for payment, and the latter thereupon issued his check, payable to Hallam, as .attorney, for the amount named in the voucher; and upon this check the appellant Hallam and associate counsel, Durrett and Green, received out of the State Treasury the entire sum of $250 appropriated to Allen. The voucher of the auditor was issued upon the following written order: “Cincinnati, Ohio, April 23, 1900. Hon. Gus G. Coulter, Auditor of Kentucky, Frankfort, Ky. — Dear Sir: In the contested election case of D. R. Allen, contestant, against W. H. Collopy, contestee, for the seat as Representative in the General Assembly from the Second District of Kenton ¡county, please make out check and warrant (when due) for allow
We are not disposed to question the reasonableness of the fee attempted to be asserted by appellants, nor are w;e inclined to approve of the conduct of Allen in seeking to withhold from his attorneys the sum appropriated by the Legislature to reimburse him for his costs incurred in prosecuting the contest for a seat in that body, for the appropriation was made, in the main, to enable him to pay his attorneys for legal services rendered him in that contest; but we are called upon to determine the legal rights of the parties as presented by the record, in doing which our only guide must be the law.
Appellants claim to have a lien upon the sum allowed .appellee by the General Assembly. If they can have and assert such a lien, it must be under and by virtue of section 107, Ky. St., 1899, which provides that “attorneys at law shall have a lien upon all claims or demands, including all. claims for unliquidated damages, put into their hands for suit or collection, or upon which suit has been insti
The judgment in favor of Allen against the auditor and treasurer has not been appealed from, but, for the reasons herein given, the judgment in favor of appellees Coulter and Hager on their cross-petition against appellants is hereby affirmed.