Case Name: Bertha Schiefer, Plaintiff, and Her Attorney, Lancelot M. Berkeley, Appellants, v. Minna Freygang, Individually and as Administratrix, etc., of Oscar C. Freygang, Deceased, and Others, Defendants. James C. Bushby, Respondent
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1910-12-02
Citations: 141 A.D. 236
Docket Number: 
Parties: Bertha Schiefer, Plaintiff, and Her Attorney, Lancelot M. Berkeley, Appellants, v. Minna Freygang, Individually and as Administratrix, etc., of Oscar C. Freygang, Deceased, and Others, Defendants. James C. Bushby, Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 141
Pages: 236–239

Head Matter:
Bertha Schiefer, Plaintiff, and Her Attorney, Lancelot M. Berkeley, Appellants, v. Minna Freygang, Individually and as Administratrix, etc., of Oscar C. Freygang, Deceased, and Others, Defendants. James C. Bushby, Respondent.
First Department,
December 2, 1910.
Attorney ancl client —party— partnership — right of retiring partner to . lien for services —res adjudicata — impounding money paid in settlement.
An attorney who is neither a party to an action nor an attorney of record for any party thereto lias no standing to make a motion in the action.
A partnership between two attorneys was dissolved. By the dissolution agreement one partner was "to wind up the unfinished business," including an abutting property owner’s claim for damages against a railroad for maintaining a viaduct. The retiring partner was to receive a percentage of the fees received in the case. After action brought the property owner conveyed her land, attempting to. reserve her right tó damages, and later brought another . action against her grantees and tile railroad ■ companies, and retained only the remaining partner. The retiring partner brought, action for a partnership accounting and made application for a receiver. The court refused to appoint a receiver, arid an order was entered reciting that the ‘ ‘ title to all the partnership property * * * passed to the defendant subject to the plaintiff's right to. an accounting." The railroads and other defendants later settled the action brought against them.
Held, that the retiring partner, who was not an attorney of record in that action,. could not have-that portion of . the settlement money, to which his former partner was entitled, paid into court to abide the .accounting between, them, as the •order in the action for an accounting was a bar to such relief.
The retiring partner had no lien on the property owner’s cause of action in the second.suit against tlie railroad companies and the grantees.
Had he had such a lien, payment of the amount thereof to his former partner 1 would relieve the defendants frbm all liability, even though notice of lien had been given.
Appeal by the plaintiff, Bertha Schiefer, and her attorney, from an order of the Supreme-Court, made at the New York Special Term and entered in the' office of the clerk of the county of New York on. the 8th day of April, 1910, directing that the defendants pay into court one-third of the amount to be paid by them on a compromise of this action agreed upon between the parties, that being the proportion of the’recovery which it is claimed the .plain tiff contracted to give the attorneys originally employed by her to bring another action with respect to the damages sought to be recovered herein, together with' the disbursements in the action, and providing that the amount so- paid into court shall abide the event of an action for a partnership - accounting between the attorney of record for the plaintiff and his former partner, and enjoining said attorney of record from disposing of said fees and disbursements.
L. M. Berkeley, for the appellants.
James G. Bttshby, respondent, in person. ,

Opinion:
Lattghxin, J.:
The order from which the appeal was taken was made on the application of the respondent, who does not show that lie is.or ever has been one of the attorneys of record in this action.' It appears that "on the 11th day of December, 1906, a copartnership which then existed between appellant Berkeley and the respondent Bushby as attorneys and counselors at law was dissolved. They had brought an action for the plaintiff as an abutting property owner on Park avenue, opposite the viaduct of the defendant railroad companies, to recover damages, and it was pending at that time. It appears by the dissolution agreement that appellant Berkeley undertook " to wind up the unfinished business of' said firm, including plaintiff's claims," and it is claimed on conflicting evidence that the respondent Bushby was to receive thirty per. cent of the fees " of said firm of Bushby & Berkeley in the plaintiff's case.". There was no recovery in that action, and the settlement , in -question was not made therein. After, commencing that action the plaintiff conveyed her premises, and in the conveyance attempted to reserve to herself the fee and rental damages claimed to have been caused by the viaduct and operation of trains thereon. Her grantee died, and thereafter his administratrix, next of kin and heirs, without the consent of plaintiff, settled with the railroad companies. Thereafter this action .was commenced in March, 1907, to enforce the plaintiff's rights against the railroad companies under the reservation in the said conveyance, and the appellant Berkeley alone was retained by her to bring the action, and for aught, that appears, he became, and still is, the attorney of record.
It appears that Busliby brought an action against Berkeley for a copartnership accounting which is still pending, and that in that action he made an application to the court for the appointment of a receiver of the. copartnership property, which was denied by an order of Special Term on the 28th day of December, 1909; and upon the denial thereof an order was duly entered, from which no appeal has been taken, which recites, among other things, that the court was of the. opinion that the " title to all the partnership property of said firm passed to the defendant subject to the plaintiff's right to an accounting." The respondent on learning that the settlement of this action had been negotiated by which the defendant railroad companies were to pay to the plaintiff $1,500, and the other defendants $500, applied for the relief granted by the order from which the appeal is taken.
It does not appear that the application is based on any facts not pre-. sented to the court on. the motion for the appointment of a receiver tending to show the necessity, for the protection of the respondent's right, of impounding the fees in which he claims to have an interest. The motion was, therefore, in effect, a renewal of the application, but in another action, for the appointment of a receiver withoyt leave of the court or additional papers setting forth additional facts which have arisen since the former motion was mad'e. Under the dissolution agreement, as has been seen, the appellant Berkeley was to have charge of the litigation then pending in behalf of the plaintiff subject only, to his duty to account to the respondent for a proportionate part of the fees of the attorneys. The question evidently presented on the application for the appointment of a receiver was whether the conduct of the appellant Berkeley or his pecuniary responsibility was such that the rights of respondent would not. be fully protected if the appellant Berkeley were allowed to continue in charge of the copartnership interests, property and funds pending the action. The order, therefore, made on that application is in the circumstances a bar to the relief sought by the motion made in this action.
Moreover, the respondent being neither a party to this action nor, so far as shown, an attorney of record for any party, has no standing to make-tlie motion. • If the agreement between the attorneys be such that the respondent.has an interest in the fees to be received by the attorney of record for the' plaintiff in this action, that is a matter of no concern to the defendants or to the plaintiff herein, as it depends entirely on the dissolution agreement. . It may be said that the respondent and his copartner as attorneys of record' in the former action had a lien on the plaintiff's canse of action, of which the defendants therein could not deprive them without their knowledge or consent. Such a theory would not avail the respondent,- for it does not appear that the moneys which the defendants herein have agreed to pay are to be paid in settlement or compromise of the original action ; but if it did the parties could not be made parties to a controversy between the attorneys, nor could they .be delayed in the .settlement of the action by the controversy between the attorneys with respect to a division of the fees which in no manner concerns them. The payment of the amount of the lien of attorneys' fees to one of the attorneys of record would relieve the defendants from all liability even though formal notice of a lien were given.
It follows, therefore, that the order should be reversed, with-ten dollars costs and disbursements, and motion. denied, with ten dollars costs. ' '
Ingraham, P. J., McLaughlin, Scott, and Dowling, JJ., concurred.
Order reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements, and motion denied, with ten dollars costs.