62 Ky. 207 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1864
delivered the opinion of the court :
James W. Caperton, as assignee of his father, William H. Caperton, sued James Price on an account chiefly for professional services as an auxiliary prosecuting attorney employed by Price on two indictments against J. P. Gay, one for the murder of Price’s son, and the other for shooting Price himself.
The appellant makes several objections to the judgment — • all of which are suggested in the bill of exceptions to the order overruling a motion for a new trial, and will be numerically noticed.
Such a contract, express or implied, though quite common, has never, so far as we know, been adjudged void as against public policy. And why it should be so considered we are not able to perceive. It may be possible that some such employed counsel may make improper efforts to convict, regardless of the guilt or innocence of the accused. But there is scarcely as much danger that such prostitution will convict the innocent, as there is that the like abuses of forensic privilege, by counsel for the accused, may acquit the guilty. On each side all the counsel are under the control of the presiding judge, who should keep all equally in their proper track; and the aid to the official attorney,may also be controlled, as he always should be, by him. In many cases of atrocious crime an array of able counsel in the defense may require, for justice to the Commonwealth, some assistance to her official representative in the prosecution; and, in such a case, it would certainly be the privilege, and might even be the civic duty, of a patriotic lawyer to aid his country in bringing to condign punishment its public enemy. A contingent fee dependent on conviction ought never to be permitted to stimulate assistant counsel; and,' so far, it might be the policy of the law to withhold its remedies for enforcing such a contract. But we cannot see any consistent reason for denouncing the mere employment or withholding a reasonable compensation, either conventional
Wherefore, the judgment is affirmed.