60 Wis. 412 | Wis. | 1884
This action is prosecuted by Newton S. Mur-phey, as surviving partner of the firm of Carpenter & Murphey, to recover for certain professional services ren
The case of Lain v. Shepardson was tried in the circuit court, and the amount charged in the bill of particulars attached to the complaint for services was $500. The amount allowed by the referee was $250. In respect to this charge the statement of defendant’s counsel is fully borne out by the record that the great preponderance of evidence relating to it sustains the finding of the referee. Eminent counsel testified on the part of the plaintiff that the charge of $500 was a reasonable one, while on the other hand several able and distinguished, lawyers testified that the value of these services was not greater than the sum allowed by the referee. Of course, in this conflict, the finding of the referee must stand.
The next case is that of Shepardson v. Green, where the plaintiffs charged for their services $350. In respect to this case, the referee found that there was a special agreement made by Mr. Carpenter with the defendant, by which the former was to have $50 certain for his services in that suit, and if he succeeded, $200; that the plaintiffs did not succeed in the action, and that the $50 had been paid by the defendant to Mr. Carpenter before the commencement of this suit. Consequently, the referee wholly disallowed the charge made in that case. It seems to us impossible to affirm that the clear weight of evidence is against this finding. A letter was introduced on the trial which was writ
Pending the motion in the county court to modify the report of the referee, the plaintiff filed an affidavit, and asked leave to introduce additional records, or to re-refer the cause to take further proofs for the purpose of showing a case in court of the Merchants’ Bank v. Dowe, Shepardson, and Tibbets, in order to raise the inference that this was one of .the cases which Mr. Carpenter referred to in his letter. This application was denied, and no error can be predicated upon that ruling of the court. The delay in discovering this additional evidence, and failure to produce it before the referee, were utterly inexcusable, as the defendant’s counsel insists.
The next controverted item is for services in the suit of Yates v. Shepardson, where $2,500 was charged, and $1,000 was allowed by the referee. There is also a great conflict in the testimony as to what would be a reasonable and fair compensation for the services which Mr. Murphey testified
The last disputed item in the account is the charge for’ services in the cases of Shepardson v. County of Milwaukee
It is not necessary, in our view, to decide here the precise legal effect which the decision in the above case would have in any subsequent litigation involving the validity of the tax certificates, or of tax deeds issued on them. It is sufficient to say now that the decision might have been, and doubtless was, of advantage to the defendant in more ways than one. As a result of such decision, probably, Mr. Shep-ardson was not called upon to pay the taxes which were assessed against his property, ánd which were involved in that litigation. Certainly, he did not pay them, as he states in his testimony. Besides, as plaintiff’s counsel argues, the decision which was made would have the obvious effect of relieving the defendant from all embarrassment in the sale of his land, and from all further apprehension as to these tax certificates, assuming that they were correctly described in the complaint. We therefore see no sufficient reason for denying the plaintiff a reasonable compensation for the services rendered in the management of those cases. We are, constrained to differ in toto with the finding of the referee, which, we think, is entirely unwarranted upon the evidence. The struggle before the referee was to show that the adjudication in the above cases could be of no possible benefit to the defendant, rather than in respect to the amount charged for the services. It is possible that the court, upon the evidence given, can determine what would be a just and reasonable compensation for these services. If not, the parties are at liberty to introduce further testimony bearing upon that point alone. But the case is not open upon any other question involved.
By the Court — The judgment of the county court is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.