Fact That Attorney Lost Case, But His Efforts Obtained Worth After Appellate Reversal, Did Indeed Justify His Lien.
Here is one with a real twist, counseling us attorney bloggers and readers to not give up on pursuit of an attorney’s lien even after a trial defeat. After all, an appellate reversal indeed may mean that the prior efforts were a lienable event for attorney’s lien purposes.
The decision is Lu v. Leo, Case No. B222325 (2d Dist., Div. 5 Mar. 23, 2011) (unpublished). Briefly put, prior attorney had a lien on a plaintiff’s recovery but lost the case. You might think that is the end of the matter, but you would be wrong. Plaintiff retained new counsel for a successful appeal and retrial, resulting in an award of positive compensatory damages and a separate award of fees/costs under a commercial lease. The lower court then found that about $133,000 of the $301,927.78 fee award was attributable to prior attorney’s work on the case, with prior attorney being allowed to recover his fees on common count and quantum meruit bases. Plaintiff appealed.
Fee award to prior attorney affirmed.
The lower court had reduced prior attorney’s award by one-half, which was a good quantum meruit gauge for attorney’s lien purposes. After all, a discharged contingency fee lawyer usually can recover in quantum meruit unless he/she abandons the case or does something else similarly egregious in nature. Neither occurred here, such that prior counsel’s efforts (although initially a loss) did positively contribute when the matter was reversed and returned money to former client upon a retrial. The attorney’s lien attached not only to the damages award, but to the separate fee award.