Williams v. Philadelphia

Citations

• 208 Pa. 282
• 57 A. 578
• 1904 Pa. LEXIS 746

Syllabus

<p>Attorney at law — Fees—Gontingent fees — Champerty.</p> <p>Contracts for contingent fees are lawful and enforceable by the courts, and something more than the mere contingency of the compensation is necessary to make them champertous.</p> <p>Attorney at laio — Attorney and client — Assistance of client.</p> <p>A client when employing an attorney at law impliedly agrees to render reasonable assistance to the attorney in the litigation.</p> <p>Contract — Breach—Prevention of performance.</p> <p>Where a contract is to perform something in the future, the successful result of which is therefore necessarily uncertain, and performance is wrongfully prevented by the other party, a speculative element is unavoidably introduced into the question of damages, but cannot take away the right to just compensation. In such cases, all that can be reasonably required of plaintiff is to produce to the jury sufficient evidence, of the best character obtainable, of a fair prospect of success, and the compensation which would have followed.</p> <p>Attorney at law — Contingent fees — Breach of contract — Employment.</p> <p>In an action by an attorney at law against the city of Philadelphia to recover fees, it appeared that plaintiff being possessed of information of a public and not a private character, that the city had made overpayments in its settlement with the state for taxes, offered to procure credit for such overpayments. The mayor under authority of an ordinance accepted the offer and made a contract with plaintiff for a contingent fee of ten per cent. One settlement was opened by plaintiff’s efforts. The city received a credit of about $30,000 on which plaintiff was paid his ten per cent fee. Plaintiff was then proceeding to open other settlements with the state, when the city believing that the result would be to its disadvantage, refused to go on and prevented plaintiff from further proceedings in its behalf. Plaintiff testified that he could have secured a further credit