Bruce Lee Jorgensen v. Benjamin B. Cassiday, III Salvador Laurel, Bruce Lee Jorgensen v. Benjamin B. Cassiday, III Salvador Laurel

Benjamin B. Cassiday, III and Salvador Laurel appeal from the judgment assessing damages from the breach of an oral joint venture agreement with Bruce L. Jorgensen. Jorgensen cross-appeals.

I

Bruce L. Jorgensen, Benjamin B. Cassi-day, III, and John Perkin are members of the Hawaii bar. In May of 1996, they entered into a joint venture to locate and jointly represent heirs to the estate of Larry Hillblom. Hillblom had recently been killed in a plane crash leaving substantial assets and the possibility that heirs might be found in the Philippines or Vietnam. They agreed to divide evenly any attorney’s fees they received for representing heirs to the Hillblom estate. Thereafter, Jocelyn Nonan, the mother of three potential heirs (the “Nonan children”) was located in the Philippines. Acting on behalf of the Nonan children, Ms. Nonan signed a retainer agreement with Perkin, who was acting on behalf of the j oint venturers.

In June 1996, while Jorgensen and Per-kin were in Vietnam, searching for other heirs, Cassiday returned to the Philippines. Cassiday convinced Nonan to enter into an agreement providing that Cassiday would be the sole legal representative of her children.…