Stoor v. Vehs

Citations

• 226 Conn. App. 636

Syllabus

The intervening plaintiff, C, appealed, and the plaintiff cross appealed, from the judgment of the trial court awarding C damages for the services that he provided as the plaintiff's attorney. The plaintiff hired C to represent him in a negligence action against the defendant and signed a retainer agreement entitling C to 33.33 percent of the plaintiff's recov- ery up to the amount of $300,000. Less than one week later, C procured a settlement offer of $100,000. The plaintiff did not authorize C to accept the offer and, instead, terminated C's representation and retained another attorney. The trial court granted C's motion to intervene in the plaintiff's case against the defendant to preserve his right to recover legal fees from the plaintiff. Thereafter, the trial court rendered judgment for the plaintiff in accordance with a settlement agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant. Subsequently, a trial was held with respect to C's intervening complaint. The trial court awarded C $9000 for the reasonable value of the services he provided and denied C's claim of unjust enrichment. Held: 1. The trial court properly applied Cole v. Myers (128 Conn. 223) to determine the proper measure of damages to award to C: C provided no authority for his proposition that the doctrine of substantial performance applied to contingency fee agreement cases in which an attorney was discharged by his client prior to settlement, and, pursuant to Cole, an attorney in such a case was permitted to recover only the reasonable value of the services he performed on his client's behalf; moreover, the trial court analyzed the work performed by C under the terms of rule 1.5 of the Rules of Professional Conduct and found that an award in the amount of $9000 constituted the reasonable value of the services he performed on the plaintiff's behalf. 2. The trial court's finding that C was entitled to the reasonable value of the services he performed on the plaintiff's behalf was supported by the e