Crowley v. Wolf’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 2 district · 11 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ * * * A client who employs an attorney on a contract for a contingent fee has an absolute right to discharge the attorney and will not be liable on quantum meruit if the discharge was in good faith, for cause, and not wrongful. ⅜ ⅜ ⅜ “ ‘It is quite well settled that, where the plaintiff in a case becomes satisfied that his cause of action lacks merit, he may discontinue the suit, and surely where a trial of the cause of action has been had and an adverse judgment rendered, there is no obligation upon the plaintiff to further carry on the litigation simply because his counsel desires to do so. It is not the policy of the law to protract or continue litigation, but when a party to a suit in good faith becomes satisfied that his contention is without merit, and desires to abandon it, he must be allowed to do so. Thornton on Attorneys at Law, Sec. 646; 2 R.C.L. p. 1000.’” Citing cases. “It seems to us that a holding in the case at bar that plaintiff can recover would be contrary to the right which a client always has to end further litigation when convinced by a decision after trial against him upon the merits. It is true that the decision of the referee appointed by the Surrogate does not have the same effect as a final judgment. Nevertheless it is a decision after trial and if it has the effect of honestly convincing a client that his case is hopeless he should not be compelled to go on in order to afford his attorney an opportunity to earn a fee.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Covert v. Allen · Kahmann v. Buck