Cazares

On one level, the issue in this case is simply one of attorney’s fees. Are plaintiffs Roy Cazares and Thomas Tosdal, former partners in the law firm of Cazares & Tosdal, entitled to one-half of a contingent fee promised them by defendant Phil Saenz when he associated the firm on a particular personal injury case, notwithstanding that Cazares became a municipal court judge before the case was settled? More fundamentally, however, the issue before us requires that we review not only the nature of contingent attorney fee arrangements but also basic contract law regarding frustration of purpose, incapacitation of parties to a contract, and the proper measure of quantum meruit recovery in such circumstances, We decide that where one member of a two-person law firm becomes incapable of performing on a contract of association with another lawyer, the obligations of the parties to the contract are discharged if it was contemplated that the incapacitated attorney would perform substantial services under the agreement. We therefore hold that Cazares and Tosdal are not entitled to 50 percent of the contingent fee as provided in the association agreement. They may, however, recover…