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Guess v. Parrott9/16/2003
ue of the reasonable value of appellee's services. A hearing was held during the 25 February 2002 Mixed Session of Cleveland County Superior Court on 28 February 2002 before The Honorable Richard D. Boner as to whether a jury trial should be had. It was determined that the trial court would conduct a bench trial on the attorneys' fees issue during the 26 March 2002 Civil Session of Gaston County Superior Court before the same judge.
After the trial court heard the arguments and evidence on that date, it filed its order on 17 April 2002. In this order and in addition to the facts already discussed herein, the trial court found that both firms entered into contingency fee agreements with, provided competent legal services to, and advanced costs and expenses on behalf of plaintiff. In finding of fact #12, the trial court found that
rior to the Plaintiff's discharge of Melrose, Seago & Lay, P.A., the law firm had 244.72 hours in attorney and staff time invested in the case and this amount of time was reasonable and necessary to competently represent the Plaintiff's interests in this matter. Prior to its discharge by the Plaintiff, Melrose, Seago & Lay, P.A. had provided significant services to the Plaintiff in this matter.
As to appellant's time in the case, the trial court found that it had "invested 332.02 hours of attorney and staff time in this case." The trial court then found that:
14. The case between the Plaintiff and the Defendants was ultimately settled by Lloyd T. Kelso & Associates on behalf of the Plaintiff in the amount of $525,000.00, thereby generated a contingency fee of $183,750.00. During 2000, both Lloyd T. Kelso & Associates and Melrose, Seago, & Lay, P.A. charged $200.00 per hour for litigation services. Lloyd T. Kelso & Associates incurred $40,565.73 in advanced costs and expenses on behalf of the Plaintiff during the time it represented the Plaintiff in this case. Lloyd T. Kelso & Associates performed additional and different work in preparing the case for trial including having additional medical evaluations performed of the Plaintiff, hiring another accident re-construction expert and taking depositions.
15. After Lloyd T. Kelso & Associates undertook representation of the Plaintiff, it was able to settle the case for $150,000.00 over the Defendants' previous high offer made during the first trial in this matter, and $260,000.00 more than the Defendants offer made immediately after the first trial concluded.
16. Although Lloyd T. Kelso & Associates undertook additional and different work on behalf of the Plaintiff in preparing the case for trial, this does not change the fact that Melrose, Seago & Lay, P.A. did a competent job of representing the Plaintiff at the first trial, and that Melrose, Seago, & Lay P.A.'s performance during the first trial on behalf of the Plaintiff was within the range of competence to be expected of attorneys practicing personal injury law in North Carolina.
Based on these findings, the trial court concluded that:
4. The representation of Melrose, Seago, & Lay P.A. conferred a valuable benefit upon the Plaintiff for which it has not been compensated.
5. Melrose, Seago & Lay, P.A. is entitled to recover the reasonable value of its services in quantum meruit from the Plaintiff from the contingency fee funds generated by the successful settlement of his case for the work it performed on behalf of the Plaintiff until unilaterally discharged by the Plaintiff on April 20, 2001.
6. It would be unjust for the Plaintiff and/or Lloyd T. Kelso & Associates to be enriched by the legal servic
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