Court Opinion

ID: 6404505
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-06-25 11:47:50.403494+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:51:09.352103
License: Public Domain

Per Curiam.

An attorney, once having indorsed an original writ, cannot afterwards be discharged, and another substituted in his place, without the consent of the defendant in the suit; for he has acquired a right to his name, as a security for his costs. It is true, in the' case before us, that the security of the defendant was not diminished * by the change. But he cannot be compelled to give up that which he already has. The admission of Mr. Fiske as a witness, he having indorsed the writ, and thereby become eventually liable to the costs of the suit, makes it necessary that a new trial should be granted.
Motions to exchange indorsers of writs have been frequently overruled at nisi prius; and it is by no means desirable to increase the facility of admitting attorneys, who almost necessarily feel a bias in the suits they commence, to become witnesses in such causes.

New trial granted