Keown v. Bunton

Citations

• 61 Pa. Super. 220
• 1915 Pa. Super. LEXIS 302

Syllabus

<p>Courts — County courts of Allegheny County — Appeal—Acts of May 5, 1911, P. L. 189, and May 28,1918, P. L. 810 — Improper remarks of counsel.</p> <p>A party who has had a jury trial under the Act of May 5, 1911, P. L. 198, as amended by the Act of May 23, 1913, P. L. 310, relating to the county court of Allegheny County, is not entitled to appeal from the county court unless a retrial of the issues of fact is necessary to prevent injustice. If such party has moved for a new trial in the county court and has been refused, and it appears that there was evidence which, if believed by the jury, was sufficient to sustain the verdict, the Superior Court will not reverse an order of the Court of Common Pleas refusing an appeal.</p> <p>The power of the appellate court to grant a new trial for inadequacy of the verdict is exceptional.</p> <p>The Superior Court will not reverse an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County refusing an appeal’from a judgment of the county court where the ground of the appeal is the improper remarks of counsel, if such remarks appear nowhere in the record of the case, except in the petition for the allowance of the appeal. Such remarks are not the subject of exception unless put upon the record at the time they are made, and a motion to withdraw a juror was made, and a continuance asked for.</p> <p>Estoppel — Counsel fees — Attorney and client.</p> <p>In an action of assumpsit by a client against his attorney the defendant claimed as a set-off a fee of five hundred dollars which he alleged was due in an equity suit in which he was the plaintiff’s attorney. In an action at law following the equity suit against the defendant in the equity suit, the plaintiff filed a statement to which he swore that he claimed “compensation for the amount of counsel fees spent by tbe plaintiff” in tbe equity suit to tbe amount of five hundred dollars. Plaintiff testified that the statement had been prepared by the defendant, his attorney, that he si