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98 Neb. 421

Dorshimer v. Herndon

Nebraska Supreme Court

Decided June 5, 1915

Nebraska Supreme Court · decided 1915-06-05

<p>1. Continuance. A litigant who is present in court when his case is set for trial, and departs without leave and goes to another state without informing his attorney where he may he found when his case is about to he tried, is not entitled to a continuance as a matter of right.</p> <p>2. Attorney and Client: Discharge: Compensation. Where an attorney makes a contract with his client to perform certain services for an agreed sum, and performs a part of those services, and- the client, without any valid excuse, discharges him or prevents the fulfilment of the contract, the attorney is entitled to recover the full contract price.</p>

Relies on Shevalier v. Doyle

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1915-06-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently March 1972

4 state decisions

101915192019301940195019601970decided

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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¶1*425The following opinion on motion for rehearing was filed September 20, 1915. Rehearing denied.

Barnes, J.

¶2The appellant has filed a motion for rehearing, and contends that the opinion overlooks the fact that plaintiff unqualifiedly admitted that he had quit the service of the defendant. A re-examination of the record shows that the plaintiff testified that, when defendant paid him the fee agreed upon, he was still ready and willing to perform the services. He said: “When he pays me my fee, I am ready to serve him.”

¶3It is next contended' that our opinion in this case is in direct conflict with the rule announced in Shevalier v. Doyle, 88 Neb. 560. Appellant insists that the rule in that case should be adhered to; that a different rule should not be announced without expressly overruling that case. In Shevalier v. Doyle, the contract of employment was terminated; Doyle had accepted his discharge; and, in the suit brought by Shevalier to cancel the mortgage given .to secure Doyle’s fee, the reasonable value of the service was alleged and the attorney was allowed to recover the same. In the case at bar the contract had not been abrogated. The defendant simply neglected and refused to pay plaintiff the fee agreed upon by him. In this case plaintiff sued to recover the compensation agreed upon. He manifested his willingness to perform the services if defendant would pay him his fee. The testimony shows that the defendant employed another attorney and ignored plaintiff. The cases are easily distinguishable, and the motion for a rehearing is

¶4Overruled.

Hamer, J., not sitting.
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