59 Neb. 400 | Neb. | 1899
There was filed in this action in the district court of Scott’s Bluff county a petition, which was in part as follows: “The plaintiff complains of the defendant and alleges that on or before the 1st day of January, 1893, the plaintiff was a duly authorized attorney at law, and admitted to practice in the courts of the state of Nebraska, and as such attorney at law was engaged in the practice of her profession in accepting retainers, and prosecuting and defending such claims and cases as came within her employment as such attorney at law; that prior to said date and time, to-wit, on or about the 1st day of September, 1889, a criminal action was tried in said county of Scott’s Bluff, wherein the state of Nebraska, prosecuted one George S. Arnold for the crime of murder in the first degree, and such proceedings were had therein as resulted in a conviction of said Arnold; that the whole costs of said prosecution and trial amounted to about the sum of $7,016.01; that at said time the said county of Scott’s Bluff had but recently been organized, and being compelled to pay said costs, the same became a heavy burden upon the people and taxpayers of said county, and the said county determined to make an attempt to obtain back the said expenses from the state by means of an appropriation by the legislature, and to do all things necessary or available to that result. Accordingly, thereupon, about the 14th day of January, 1893, two of the county commissioners of said Scott’s Bluff county, being a majority of all the county commissioners of said Scott’s Bluff county, for and on behalf of said 'county orally employed this plaintiff to prepare a suitable appropriation bill appropriating and paying to the
In the answer there were admissions of the trial of the criminal case alleged in the petition, and that the costs were as stated in the petition; also, that a bill or act for the “relief of Scott’s Bluff county” had been prepared. It was pleaded that it was done by “Hon. Wm. Neville,” and was introduced by a member of the house of representatives, and in the due course of legislation became a law, and by it there was appropriated to the purpose of the act the sum of $7,495.73, which was after-
“6th. Defendant further answering denies that it ever at any time, or at any place in any manner, by its board of county commissioners, or any part of said board, in session or out of session, or by any means whatever acting for and on behalf of defendant, employed plaintiff, either orally or in writing, or any other way, to prepare said appropriation bill and present and argue the same before any of the committees of either house of said legislature on behalf of said defendant or any other purpose, and is not indebted to plaintiff in any sum whatever.”
The reply was a denial of the new matter in the answer. A trial was had to the court, a jury being waived, and the defendant was given judgment. The plaintiff has prosecuted error to this court.
Evidence was introduced for plaintiff, but none on
“Q. You are the plaintiff in this case?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. You may commence at the' beginning and tell what took place between you and the commissioners with reference to obtaining an appropriation from the legislature, and tell what occurred between you and the commissioners. .
“A. In the spring or first of the year 1893, Elmer Morse, one of the board of commissioners, chairman of*407 the board of commissioners of Scott’s Bluff county, I think he was, spoke to me about going to Lincoln and asked me if I thought I could procure the passage of a reimbursing bill. I told him I thought I could, but asked why Mr. Huffman, the county attorney, could not go. He said he thought Mr. Huffman'—
“Defendant objects to what was said about Mr. Huffman. Overruled. Exception.
“He said he wished me to go because Mr. Huffman said he would have no influence with an independent legislature, while, if I wanted to go, he thought I could get a bill through the legislature. We talked about the matter of fee. He desired that if I went down that my expenses should all be paid, and said that while he would hardly be willing to pay a fixed amount, I could have a very liberal percentage if Í secured the passage of the bill. There was no amount agreed upon. The contract between him and myself was that I should have a very liberal fee.
“Q. _What if you did not obtain any appropriation?
“A. I was not to receive anything. Mr. Decker agreed to the same thing.”
One of the county commissioners testified as follows:
“January, 1893, I made a verbal contract with the plaintiff, as an attorney and agent of Scott’s Bluff county, Nebraska, to procure the passage of a bill by the legislature of Nebraska, for the purpose of reimbursing Scott’s Bluff county for the expense incurred in the trial of one George S. Arnold for the crime of murder. Said plaintiff was to prepare said bill, procure its introduction to the legislature, to argue the merits of said bill as agent and attorney of said Scott’s Bluff county, Nebraska, and to do whatever was necessary to secure the passage of said bill.
“Q. For what compensation was the plaintiff in this case to carry out this contract on her behalf?
• “A. There was no specified sum mentioned. If the bill passed for only a part of the original sum sought,*408 she was not to receive as much; but in any event she was to receive a very liberal fee in the event of success, which fee to be proportioned to the amount secured. The plaintiff was to pay all expenses, the county not to be held liable for any expense or compensation in the event that no amount sought in the bill was secured. On account of plaintiff’s taking the case conditionally she was to receive a larger fee in case she succeeded in securing the passage of the bill mentioned than she would have received if Scott’s Bluff county had guarantied her expenses or a fee in any case.”
A member of the senate at the time the appropriation bill referred to herein was passed testified as follows:
“Q. Do you know the amount of work and labor that Mrs. Richardson actually expended in the matter of procuring a favorable report from the committee of claims in the houses, and also the same committee in the senate, and in procuring the passage of said bill through both branches of the legislature?
“A. I know she was there when the session opened, and was there continuously until after the bill was passed and approved by the governor and became a law, as far as was necessary for the legislature and its approval was concerned, which was very near the close of the session, and that she worked continuously for that bill. I know that she went to every member of the senate time and time again in working for the bill, and I also know that the sentiment of the senate was against the bill until turned the other way by her.”
A party who was a member of the house when the bill passed stated in testimony in this case:
“I myself with other members was asked to listen to her narrative of the case and circumstances very early in the session, I think the first week — and it continued until the passage of the bill, the date of which I don’t remember, but it was very late in the session. She was constantly interviewing myself and other members of the house by urging us to look into the merits of the bill*409 and in advancing her arguments .to show the merits of the case.
“Q. State if you remember any of the difficulties and adverse report that had to be overcome to get the bill through.
“A. Why, the committee on claims reported once, the first time that they reported to allow one-half of the claim. She fought the report after it came back to the house and got it recommitted. The committee were not satisfied. The members of the committee expressed themselves dissatisfied with her refusal to take one-half of the claim, and finally reported it back to be indefinitely postponed. She then came upon the floor and mustered members enough to defeat it — the report for indefinite postponement — and had it ordered' to the general file, and later she secured enough members to call it up out of its regular order, and considered it in open house, and finally secured the passage of the bill for the full amount asked.
“Q. Speaking from your experience as a legislator, what would you say about the efficiency of her work and the legality of her means employed?
“A. It was the shrewdest piece of work I ever saw done in the way of legislation, and the fact of her being a woman created a great deal of comment. She was the most persistent worker I ever saw, and the argument she made both before the committee and the members individually were such as would have done credit to any attorney in the state.”
In regard to contracts of the nature of the one which is herein asserted by plaintiff it was stated in Wood v. McCann, 6 Dana [Ky.], 366, quoted in Cooley, Constitutional Limitations [6th ed.], 163, 164, and in an article by Samuel Maxwell in 28 Am. Law Review, p. 211, on the subject of “Necessity for the Suppression of Lobbying” : “A lawyer may be entitled to compensation for writing a petition, or even for making a public argument before the legislature or a committee thereof; but the
Affirmed.