195 P. 98 | Mont. | 1921
delivered the opinion of the court.
This action was brought by the plaintiff in the court below to recover of defendant Ziebarth, as clerk of the district court of Blaine county, and of the Massachusetts Bonding & Insurance Company, as surety, damages resulting from the entry of an unauthorized judgment, and for legal services performed by one R. E. O’Keefe, acting as attorney for the plaintiff in procuring the annulment of the judgment, and defending actions growing out of such entry. The trial resulted in a verdict for the defendants below. Appeal is from the judgment.
The defendants’ answer put that point directly in issue; and, being a matter upon which a difference of opinion might exist, it was a question for the jury to decide upon all the circumstances given in evidence and the opinion of a witness on matters involving a profession, aided by their own experience and knowledge of human affairs. The court would have committed reversible error if it had submitted the instruction requested. A witness may express his opinion of the value of his own professional services, or those of another, and thus aid the jury in determining their value. But such testimony is not conclusive as a matter of law. The jury were at liberty to disregard the evidence embodying the opinion altogether, as they did in the instant case. This character of testimony was involved in the case of St. John v. United States F. & G. Co., 56 Mont. 197, 182 Pac. 128, where this court reversed the judgment of the lower court because it had given the jury a peremptory instruction to find the value of professional services to be as stated by the attorney who per
.The judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.