Harris v. Drenning

Citations

• 101 Kan. 711
• 168 P. 1106
• 1917 Kan. LEXIS 183

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Action — Money Collected and Retained by Plaintiff’s Attorney — Evidence — Attorney’s Fee — Findings. Where a client brings an action against her attorney for an alleged balance of funds in his hands collected by him on her account, and where the petition charges that defendant attorney was guilty of fraud and misrepresentation as to the amount collected, and where the court properly instructs the jury that if the defendant was guilty.of such fraud and misrepresentation he was not entitled to any deduction for attorney’s fees, a verdict for plaintiff for a sum which manifestly made an allowance to- defendant .for attorney’s fees, amounts to a finding of the jury that the attorney was not guilty of fraud or misrepresentation.</p> <p>2. Compromise and Settlement — Attorney and Client. Where an attorney and client meet for the purpose of an accounting and settlement and the attorney specifies the fee and the client makes no objec7 tion at the time nor for eighteen months thereafter, there is in effect an account stated and a settlement made between the parties concerning such attorney’s fee.</p> <p>3. Appeal — Controverted Facts¡ — Not Open to- Review. On appeal, however persuasive and convincing the evidence may be, where there still remain certain controverted facts in issue, the supreme court can not perform the functions of a jury and can not order final judgment.</p> <p>4. Same — New Trial — Certain Issues Eliminated. The rule of the civil code, section 307, which directs that where justice requires that a new trial be granted, but that “the new trial shall be only of.the issues as to which the verdict or decision appears to be wrong, when such issues are separable,” applied.</p>