87 P. 154 | Or. | 1906
delivered the opinion of the court.
The defendants, as witneses in their own behalf, testified that when retained by Mrs. Hamilton she represented to them that her father had been the owner of the north half of a donation land claim in Benton County, containing in all 319.85 acres, and that she had been the owner of an undivided one-tMrd of
It will be remembered that Mrs. Hamilton secured a deed for the undivided half of the north half of the donation land claim in Benton County and the undivided one-third of the south half thereof, her interest therein being equivalent to 133.26 acres. The testimony of several witnesses who are acquainted with this land is that at the time it was conveyed to Webster Holmes it was worth $15 an acre, or $1,998.90. The court, however, found it to be of the value of $2,000. An attorney who appeared as plaintiff’s witness testified that the service performed by the defendants in maintaining the suit for a divorce and procuring a decree therein, no defense having been interposed, and in ■securing out of court a settlement of the property rights of the parties, was reasonably worth from $100 to $125. It is argued by plaintiff’s counsel: (1) That though the complaint admits that such service was worth $250, the reasonable value thereof, as disclosed by the testimony, is so small when compared with the worth of the real property pretended to have been conveyed to Webster Holmes in payment thereof as to afford conclusive evidence of such gross inadequacy as to render the transaction constructively fraudulent; (2) that the relation of attorney and client, existing between the defendants and Anna Hamilton when her deed was made to one of them, precludes the accept
What has here been said in relation to the compensation agreed upon will also apply to the alleged ignorance of Mrs. Hamilton as to the value of the land which she stipulated to give the defendants. In the neglected condition of the property she did not consider it as of much value. The defendants were unacquainted with the premises, but as the compensation which they were to receive was contingent, the value of the land is not so important, for the more they secured for her the more they would obtain for themselves. There is not, therefore, such a difference between the value of the services rendered and the worth of the property received as to render the transaction fraudulent, or to show that the defendants exercised any undue influence over their client, or violated in the smallest degree their professional duty.
The plaintiff, however, is not entitled to the relief sought herein and hence the decree is reversed, and the suit dismissed.
Reversed.