Brockley v. Brockley

Citations

• 122 Pa. 1
• 15 A. 646
• 1888 Pa. LEXIS 585

Syllabus

<p>1. An agreement between a debtor and a creditor lor the acceptance of part of a debt in satisfaction of the whole, is void for want of considera^ tion; but, as one of the exceptions to the rule, it is otherwise where the amount of the creditor’s claim is disputed or contingent.</p> <p>2. The retainer of an attorney at law authorizes him in general to do, in behalf of his client, all acts incidental to a due and orderly conduct of the suit, affecting not the canse of action, but the remedy only.</p> <p>3. Wherefore, an attorney has no power, merely by virtue of his employment as such, to compromise the claim of his client; to bind the client, there must be proof of a prior authority given, or of a subsequent ratification of the act.</p> <p>4. Cases may arise where the claim would be seriously imperiled by delay, with no opportunity for consultation, when from the character of the claim, or the attending circumstances, the power to compromise may be implied: Per Mr. Justice Clark.</p>