Court Opinion

ID: 9522323
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:22:40.100452+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:02:33.178908
License: Public Domain

*1208DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
When a contract of employment is made between lawyer and client who is a party to a dissolution action, the basic obligation to pay the lawyer's fee is that of his client. If as part of the arrangement, the lawyer provides services without being paid beforehand by his client, in reliance upon the client's promise to pay in the future, or upon the power of the trial court to order and enforce payment of the fee by an opposing party, he assumes the risk that he may never in fact be paid. If thereafter the client cannot pay and the trial court does not make the contemplated order, lamentations are in order, but the loss is within legitimate expectations.
Here the death of Mrs. Paxton intervened between the receipt by her lawyer of a $1200 provisional order and the rendition by the trial court of a further such order. Her death terminated the dissolution proceedings and the trial court lost its jurisdiction to make further enforceable orders. In Re the Marriage of Hilton, (1984) Ind.App., 459 N.E.2d 744. As I see it, Mrs. Paxton's lawyer is left with enforcing his right to payment under the contract for services through the probate court where he, like all of her other creditors, can file a claim. As I recall the oral presentation before this Court, her lawyer did not wish to pursue that course, since Mr. Paxton has qualified as personal representative of her estate, and the atmosphere there is not friendly. I would deny this writ.
PRENTICE, J., concurs.