Ballerino

Appeal from a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, in the sum of one thousand dollars, and from' an order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial. The action is brought by the plaintiff, as assignee of Hatch, Miller & Brown, to recover for services rendered by them in the suit of Ballerino v. Ballerino, in the superior court of Los Angeles County.

The appellant contends that the court erred in overruling the defendant’s demurrer to the plaintiff’s complaint. The complaint alleges that between the twenty-fifth day of March, 1896, and the first day of June, 1897, Hatch, Miller & Brown rendered services to the defendant, upon her retainer of them, in the prosecution of a suit for said defendant against one Bartolo Ballerino, and in counseling and advising said defendant relative to said suit and her interests therein involved; that said services are reasonably worth the sum of $2,500; that the same has not been paid; and that said claim had been properly assigned to the plaintiff by Hatch, Miller & Brown. In support of the contention of the appellant that the complaint was insufficient, it is said that it nowhere appears that the parties who rendered the services were attorneys…

I dissent from the order denying a rehearing in this cause, my dissent being based upon a ground not mentioned in the opinion of the court, although presented in the briefs. The trial court erred, in my opinion, to the prejudice of the defendant, in excluding all evidence of the terms of her contract with her attorney. Plaintiff’s assignors were employed by her attorney, and never had any direct communication with the defendant regarding their compensation. Her defense to the action was, that she had not authorized the employment of additional counsel at her expense, and had only consented to the employment of plaintiff’s assignors because her attorney desired their assistance, and upon the express condition that he should pay them for their services out of the fee which she had contracted to pay him. Upon this point there was a sharp conflict of evidence, and it appears from the bill of exceptions that at the close of the evidence the trial judge announced that he should find that her attorney’s authority was limited, as claimed by defendant and her witnesses. The findings, as subsequently filed, however, are silent upon this specific point, being merely general, to the effect…