Opinion ID: 2074116
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: jack roger davis (hillys kline and carroll c. kline) case.

Text: This case involved injuries to a minor, Jack Roger Davis, aged 14 years, son of Mrs. Hillys Kline, while riding as a passenger in a bus from Fremont, Nebraska, to Des Moines, Iowa, on August 15, 1945. Included in the record is respondent's exhibit 20, purporting to be a letter written from Omaha, Nebraska, on August 18, 1945, addressed to respondent and signed Mrs. Carroll Kline, mother of Jack Roger Davis. This letter stated in effect that the writer's son was injured in an accident on August 15 and that at the time of the writing of the letter he was confined in a hospital in Omaha. It further stated that since the writer had been in Omaha a number of people had recommended respondent to handle the case for her and had advised her to write to him. It then went on to request that respondent or someone from his office come down to Omaha to talk to her about the case, since it would be impossible for her to leave her son in his present condition. She stated that her home was in Des Moines, but that she would be in Omaha for a while, and if you can come down I wish you would get in touch with me, stating where she could be found. Eleanor Greene, employed in respondent's office, testified that she was in the office the day the letter arrived; that respondent was out of town on a Great Lakes cruise and that the other members of the firm, Tautges and Welch, were also absent; that she got in touch with Frank McAllister, an attorney with offices in St. Paul and Chicago, and he came to respondent's office that day; and that she showed him the letter, asked him if he would care to go ahead and handle the matter, and turned the letter over to him. Petitioner then offered in evidence petitioner's exhibit Z-1, a record of proceedings filed in the district court of Polk county, Iowa, but this offer was rejected by the referee. An examination of that exhibit discloses that McAllister commenced an action on behalf of Jack Roger Davis, by Hillys Kline, his guardian ad litem, against the Interstate Transit Lines, Inc., in the superior court of Cook county, Illinois. While this suit was pending in Chicago, Interstate Transit Lines instituted injunction proceedings against Jack Roger Davis, Hillys Kline, and Carroll C. Kline in Iowa to prevent the case from being tried in Illinois and demanded that it be tried in Iowa. An Iowa attorney represented the Klines, and the only connection of McAllister with the Iowa case appears to be that his name was on the pleadings as counsel with the Iowa attorney. In any event, a decree was issued out of the district court of Polk county, Iowa, restraining the Klines from prosecuting or promoting the prosecution of the case in Illinois. Included in this decree was a finding by the court to the effect that evidence offered on behalf of Interstate Transit Lines sustained the allegations of their petition in which they alleged that respondent and McAllister solicited the business of collecting the claim for damages for personal injuries to Jack Roger Davis. The judgment or decree containing this finding was rejected by the referee when offered as evidence by petitioner. Respondent contends that at the time these injunction proceedings were instituted he was not in Minneapolis and that he had no knowledge of the proceedings until the bill of particulars in the instant case was served. We can find nothing in these proceedings which would indicate that respondent was a party to the action, since his name did not appear as an attorney of record in the suit brought against Interstate Transit Lines. The referee found that respondent was never served with any process in the Iowa proceedings, that he made no appearance, nor was any appearance filed in his behalf. The referee further said:    The evidence is that the only connection Respondent had with the Davis claim was the letter that was written to his office and turned over by his secretary to Mr. McAllister. The matter was handled from then on by McAllister. Respondent never acted as the boy's attorney, made no claim for him, and the evidence fails to show any solicitation on the part of Respondent in this case. We believe that under the facts and circumstances of this case the referee was strictly within his rights in refusing to accept the Iowa proceedings as evidence of solicitation in connection with this case. We cannot see how it has any bearing in a matter where it clearly appears that respondent at no time was attorney of record and never made any claim for services. The referee's finding of no solicitation in the Davis case is strengthened partly by the fact that it appears from the letter of Mrs. Carroll Kline, written from Omaha three days after the accident, that she was requesting respondent to consider the case. If this letter is authentic, it would hardly seem possible that respondent could have solicited the case between August 15, the date of the accident, and August 18, the date Mrs. Kline wrote to him, particularly when it appears from the record that he was on a vacation trip on the Great Lakes during that time.