Court Opinion

ID: 9675789
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:05:59.74768+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:39.190315
License: Public Domain

McCALEB, Justice
(concurring).
*440In general, I am in agreement with the majority opinion but I do not subscribe to the view that an interest in a claim for damages for personal injuries is not a thing of value which may be the object of a theft. Such a claim is an incorporeal movable and, if defendant had taken it by fraud, I think he would be subject to prosecution. But it is evident from the answers to the bill of particulars that defendant did not misappropriate or take the 20% (or 331/3%) interest in the damage claim of Wall by fraud; the only thing he thus obtained was the irrevocable right to represent Wall as his attorney on a contingent fee basis. In other words, the alleged object of the theft, i. e., interest in the claim, was not taken; the transfer of this interest was founded on a valid consideration — professional services to be rendered Wall; the alleged fraud consisted of defendant’s misrepresentation by which he assertedly obtained the employment, which, if true, gives rise only to a civil action for annulment of the contract.
Filed Jan. 8, 1959.