Lynch v. Conger

Headnote

Attorney and client — equitable assignment of part of fund due on city contract in payment for legal services rendered.

Lynch v. Conger, 181 App. Div. 221 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment entered January 4, 1918, upon ' an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the third judicial department, reversing a judgment in favor of defendants entered upon a dismissal of the complaint by the court on trial at Special Term and directing judgment in favor of plaintiff. The action was brought to impress a trust’upon a sum of money paid to the Owego Bridge Company by the city of New York as the final estimate upon a contract between the city and the Owego Bridge Company for the steel construction of an armory building in said city and by it paid to defendants Conger. The complaint alleged that under an agreement with the officers of the bridge company plaintiff was to receive or be paid $5,000 out of said final estimate for services that he had rendered and was to reader as a lawyer to said bridge company in connection with said contract. The trial court found the facts as claimed by the plaintiff, but held that the agreement between the plaintiff and the bridge company did not operate as an equitable assignment or create a lien upon the funds constituting the final estimate, and that said funds were not impressed with a trust in favor of the plaintiff. The Appellate Division held that the agreement did

constitute an equitable assignment" and reversed the decision of the trial court and directed judgment against the defendants Conger personally, who had received the amount of the said final estimate.