Bridges v. Brooklyn Union Gas Co.

Headnote

Bridges v. Brooklyn Union Gas Co., 174 App. Div. 907 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered July 17, 1916, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict. The action was brought to recover for certain legal services rendered by plaintiff, an attorney, to defendant in an attempt to bring about a settlement of certain certiorari proceedings then pending to test the special franchise tax assessment

against defendant for the years 1906, 1907, 19Q8 and 1909. The answer put in issue the performance of the services as enumerated in the complaint, and their value. As an affirmative defense, defendant alleged that it had agreed, through its agent, to give plaintiff a retainer, but that plaintiff should receive no further compensation unless he succeeded in effecting a reduction in the assessments in question to an amount corresponding relatively to the reduction that had been secured in the case of the Consolidated Gas Company, in which plaintiff had previously been employed, and in effecting a settlement of the Newtown Gas Company’s claims against the city for gas supplied, and that, in case plaintiff should succeed in. bringing about these results, any further compensation to him should be determined by its agent, in his absolute discretion. It was further alleged that plaintiff wholly failed to effect such settlements, and that the agent had decided plaintiff was not entitled to any compensation beyond the retainer already paid to him.