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Campbell v. Bozeman Investors of Duluth8/24/1998
enalize the client in direct contravention of the client's absolute right to discharge his attorney.
The right to discharge is obviously meaningless if the client is penalized by having to pay for services that have not been rendered. The client could conceivably be required to pay duplicate charges consisting of fees to the discharged attorney for services not rendered, in addition to those incurred by a newly appointed attorney for the same work.
Olsen and Brown v. City of Englewood (Colo. 1995), 889 P.2d 673, 676-77 (citations omitted).
27 Finding considerable merit in the "client discharge rule" as expressed in Martin, Rosenberg, and Olsen, we follow those jurisdictions in holding that the discharge of an attorney by a client is not a breach of contract and does not give rise to contract damages. Therefore, we affirm the District Court on this issue.
28 We next must determine whether Hartelius and Morgan are entitled to a fee and on what basis that fee, if any, should be determined. The District Court concluded that Hartelius and Morgan were discharged for cause, however, they substantially performed the services for which they were retained and are thus entitled to a fee based on the reasonable value of the services rendered. Campbell alleges error in the court's determination arguing instead that this Court should formally adopt a rule that an attorney discharged for cause is not entitled to any fee. She contends that we endorsed a similar rule in Bink v. First Bank West (1991), 246 Mont. 414, 804 P.2d 384. However, Campbell's reliance on Bink is misplaced.
29 In Bink, we remanded the case to the district court for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the client discharged his attorney for cause and to determine the amount of attorney fees and costs. We did not, as Campbell suggests, endorse any rule espousing the idea that an attorney discharged for cause is not entitled to a fee and we decline to adopt such a rule now.
30 Instead, we agree with those jurisdictions that hold that regardless of whether an attorney was discharged with or without cause, that attorney is entitled to a quantum meruit recovery for the reasonable value of his services rendered to the time of discharge. Fracasse v. Brent (Cal. 1972), 494 P.2d 9, 14-15. We note one exception to this general rule, however — situations where the discharge occurs "on the courthouse steps," just prior to settlement and after much work by the attorney. In those cases some reviewing courts have, on appropriate facts, found that the entire fee was the reasonable value of the attorney's services. Fracasse, 494 P.2d at 14. Here, however, Hartelius and Morgan were not discharged "on the courthouse steps," and, accordingly, we need not address this exception. Rather, the general quantum meriut rule applies.
31 Moreover, in the case sub judice, because we have determined that the general rule applies, it is not necessary for us to entertain a discussion of the reasons why Campbell discharged Hartelius and Morgan or whether those reasons constituted "cause." Rather, we review whether the District Court was correct in concluding that the reasonable value of the services rendered by Hartelius and Morgan was $6600 and $2200, respectively.
32 Hartelius testified at the hearing that he does not normally record his time in contingency fee cases, so he had to reconstruct the time he spent on the case. Thus, he estimated that he spent at least 100 hours on the case, his paralegal spent an additional 50 hours on the case and Morgan spent 22 hours on the case. At the conclusion of the hearing, the parties stipulated t
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