43 App. D.C. 304 | D.C. Cir. | 1915
delivered the opinion of the Court:
The court below in its opinion attached no importance to the fact that these parties for a long period of time had been conducting transactions similar to the one sued upon, and that it had in all instances been the custom for plaintiff to send its bill to defendants, made out in their name, and for which in each instance it received in payment thereof defendants’ chock. We think the question of defendants’ liability turns largely upon this conceded fact. One set of the briefs was for use in the supreme court of South Carolina. Tt is inconceivable that plaintiff would have printed and delivered the briefs, if dependent upon the client for payment, without either the money in advance or an assurance that the attorneys would pay the bill. While it is stipulated that no such guaranty was expressly given by defendants, we think there was an implied assurance to that effect arising out of the custom which had been established between the parties in past transactions. In Wires v. Briggs, 5 Vt. 101, 26 Am. Dec. 284, a case in which it was held that an attorney was not liable for the costs of the service of a writ, the rule of implied liability was stated as follows: “It is true that in some cases the law may imply a promise on the part of a lawyer to pay fees for the services of client’s writs; as where the officer had been in the constant practice of charging his fees for such services to the lawyer, who from time to time had settled such charges without questioning their legality; from such practice the law may imply a promise to pay for subsequent services.”
Unquestionably, it is a settled rule of the common law that
The court below attached great importance to the rules of court as imparting legal notice to plaintiff as to the filing and distribution of briefs in pending cases. Rules of court have the force of statutes to the extent of their operation. They are for the control of officers of the court, including attorneys and litigants, “and are binding upon the court, and upon the suitors and those who represent suitors.” District of Columbia v. Roth, 18 App. D. C. 547. It would be extreme, indeed, to hold the rules of the supreme court of South Carolina legal notice to plaintiff of the disposition to be made of the briefs it was printing for the use of defendants. Besides the rules' of the court in South Carolina, as in every other jurisdiction, impose the duties relative to the disposition of briefs equally upon the attorney and the litigant. The rules of court, therefore, have little, if any, bearing upon this case.
The judgment is reversed with costs, and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.