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93 N.Y. 381

In re H—

New York Court of Appeals

Decided October 2, 1883

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1883-10-02

These proceedings were instituted to punish H., an attorney, for alleged professional misconduct. The Special Term granted the application.; its order was affirmed by the General Term, and from such affirmance an appeal was taken to the Court of Appeals. After the appeal to the Court of Appeals had been perfected, Henry H. Morange, who had up to that time acted as attorney and counsel for H., declined to argue the appeal.

Relies on In re Paschal · Coughlin v. . N.Y.C. and H.R.R.R. Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1883-10-02

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently January 1962

1 federal appellate · 10 state decisions

40188318901900191019201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Danforth, J.

¶1The Supreme Court adjudged that M. (the original attorney) was not entitled to the remittitur, and in substance, therefore, that he could have no further connection with the case as attorney. No appeal was taken, and at a subsequent term of that court the respondent, upon notice, was substituted as attorney in place of M., and authorized to collect the costs in question. From this order M. appeals. Both orders were on the ground that M. had refused to go on with the case, or hold further intercourse with his client in regard thereto. He was, therefore, so far as the case in hand was concerned, as one dead or disabled, and it was clearly within the power of the court to permit the appointment or substitution of a new attorney, and, cause for that having been, shown, it was within its discretion to determine upon what terms it should be done (Rule 109, Sup. Ct.), and, among others, whether the judgment or order, when obtained, should be chargeable with his fees. (Barker v. St. Quintin, 12 M. & W. 451; In re Paschal, 10 Wall. 483.) Assuming, however, with the appellant, that the lien of an attorney would, under ordinary circumstances, attach to the final decision in such proceeding (Coughlin v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co., 71 N. Y. 448; 27 Am. Rep. 75), it cannot now be claimed by him, for he refused to do the act which would have rendered a judgment in his client’s favor possible, and so waived a right to which he might otherwise have become entitled, and if for services rendered before judgment there was an inchoate right of lien, it was lost by his unqualified abandonment of the cause. In other words, he discharged himself, and in such a case it is clear that an attorney cannot leave his client in the middle of a matter, because he does not supply him with money, or by reason of any other difficulty, without running the risk of losing the benefit of that relation. (In re Faithfull, L. R., 6 Eq. 325; Robins v. Goldingham, 13 id. 440.)

¶2The client’s own interest was at stake in the proceedings in *385question, and, upon the refusal of M. to act as his attorney, he could deal with the case as he chose. He could not, indeed, compel the attorney to render service. Nor, on the other hand, was he bound to submit to an adverse decision by reason of the attorney’s default. There is nothing to show that M. was to blame for not going on with the litigation, but he refused to do so, and even suggested the employment of another lawyer. To this implied consent he attached no condition, and afterward, without success, invoked the equitable interference of the court in regard to the costs in question.

¶3In the order appealed from there is no legal error, and it should be affirmed.

¶4All concur, except Andrews, J., absent.

¶5Order affirmed.

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