Client (law)

“ The general principles of contract law as we have discussed them are applicable to this method of forming the agency relationship.
POWERS OF ATTORNEY.—In connection with the formation of agency by contract, special attention must be given to powers of attorney. A power of attorney must oftentimes be given in order to convince third persons that the agent really is an agent, with the powers which he claims to possess. A power of attorney is nothing more than a written statement that a particular person is the agent of another person, with the powers stated in the document. ”

“ It is not necessary that express authority to receive service of process be shown. The law of the state may designate an agent upon whom service may be made, if he be one sustaining such relation to the company that the state may designate him for that purpose, exercising legislative power within the lawful bounds of due process of law. ”

“ There is no proof of any agreement at the time of the contract for the concealment of the agency of the plaintiff from the members of the legislature.
b. There is no difference between the obligation of an agent to procure a law and an agent for any other purpose legal in itself; and the law does not avoid a contract of agency because it is to be kept secret. ”

“ For this purpose, after being executed by the corporate authorities, it must be presented to that officer, and he must inquire and determine whether all the requirements of the law authorizing its issue have been observed, and whether all the conditions of the contract in consideration of which it was to be put out have been complied with. To enable him to do this, evidence must be submitted which he is required to file and preserve. ”

“ Even in the domain of contract, we find the striking doctrine that an undisclosed principal has the rights as well as the obligations of a known contractor,—that he can be sued, and, more remarkable, can sue on his agent's contract. The first precedent cited for the proposition that a promise to an agent may be laid as a promise to the principal, is a case of master and servant. ”

“ If the contract of employment is for a definite time, and the principal, without cause, revokes the agent's authority before that time arrives, the principal is liable to the agent for breach of contract; if no time is fixed for the termination of the agency, it is an agency at will, and the principal, with or without cause, may revoke at any time without incurring liability to his agent. ”

“ As a leading commentator has put it: “It is not necessary that an attorney-client relation have actually existed. One who consults a lawyer with a view to obtaining professional legal services from him or her is regarded as a client for purposes of the privilege.” ”

“ In matters of policy, involving the form, timing, and substance of litigation, such attorneys are subject to the directions of petitioner and not of those nominally their clients. Further, the methods used to obtain litigants are not conducive to encouraging the kind of attorney-client relationships which the State reasonably may demand. ”

“ When a natural person acts by an agent, the authority of the agent is conferred, and its limits are determined, by the will and consent of the principal. In general only those acts of the agent are imputed by the law to the principal, which are within the limits of the agent’s authority as thus created and circumscribed. But in the case of a corporation it is necessarily otherwise. ”

“ All the facts and circumstances may be taken into consideration, if the language be doubtful, to enable the court to arrive at the real intention of the parties, and to make a correct application of the words of the contract to the subject-matter and the objects professed to be described, for the law concedes to the court the same light and information that the parties enjoyed, so far as the same can be collected from the language employed, the subject-matter, and the surrounding facts and circumstances. ”

“ That if one man employs another to do a legal act, which, in the ordinary course of things will involve the agent in obligations pecuniary or otherwise, a contract on the part of the employer to indemnify his agent is implied by law ... ”

“ And we are not aware that in any case, either by usage or the by-law of any company, or by any judicial decision, it has ever been held essential to the validity of these initial contracts that they should be attested by the officers and seal of the company. ”

“ A person with whom, or in whose name, a contract is made for the benefit of another, is a trustee of an express trust, within the meaning of this section.'
Under this provision, the court of appeals of that state has held that an agent of a corporation, to whom, 'as executive agent of the company,' a promise is made to pay money, is 'a person with whom, or in whose name, a contract is made for the benefit of another,' and may therefore sue in his own name on the promise. ”

“ If an attorney accept a gift from one thus connected with him, it may be recovered in a court of chancery, by the donor or his creditors, should it be necessary for them to assert a right to it to satisfy their demands. [Pg 109] When the relation of solicitor and client exists, and a security is taken by the solicitor from his client, the presumption is that the transaction is unfair; and the onus of proving its fairness is upon the solicitor. [54] A man ought to be very careful of placing himself in a position to have any of his transactions regarded in that light. ”

“ That is why a power of attorney is generally given; not that the law requires it, but that the agent may have evidence of his agency which will satisfy third persons that he is really the agent. A corporation would not transfer stock without a written power presented to it ”

“ Whether they are reasonable or not, is for the Court, not the jury, to say. A contract made with an assistant, or with a partner, that upon separating from the principal, or partner, he will not practise within a certain section of country, or for a certain time, is valid when made in consideration of instruction to be given, or pecuniary or other benefits to be enjoyed in consequence of the partnership. ”

“ Persons acting professionally in legal formalities, negotiations, or proceedings by the warrant or authority of their clients may be regarded as attorneys-at-law within the meaning of that designation as used in this country; and all such, when they undertake to conduct legal controversies or transactions, profess themselves to be reasonably well acquainted with the law and the rules and practice of the courts, and they are bound to exercise in such proceedings a reasonable degree of care, prudence, diligence, and skill. Authorities everywhere support that proposition ”

“ Put another way, although a lawyer acts as an agent of his client, unions and trustees do not serve as agents of their members and beneficiaries in the conventional sense of being subject to their direction and control in pursuing claims. ”

“ If a man tells another to make a contract in his name, or commands him to commit a tort, no special conception is needed to explain why he is held; although even in such cases, where the intermediate party was a freeman, the conclusion was not reached until the law had become somewhat mature. But, if the title Agency deserves to stand in the law at all, it must be because some peculiar consequences are attached to the fact of the relation. If the mere power to bind a principal to an authorized contract were all, we might as well have a chapter on ink and paper as on agents. ”

“ The principle is that whatever relates merely to the remedy and constitutes part of the procedure is determined by the law of the forum, for matters of process must be uniform in the courts of the same country; but whatever goes to the substance of the obligation and affects the rights of the parties, as growing out of the contract itself or inhering in it or attaching to it, is governed by the law of the contract. ”

“ This is one case where a partnership has an advantage over a corporation. A group of lawyers may form a partnership and do business under a partnership name. But a group of lawyers seldom or never form corporations to practice law. The reason for this is that the corporation is a separate entity, and the corporation as such cannot pass a bar examination and be admitted to the bar. In fact, in a few States, there are statutes prohibiting a corporation from practicing law. ”

“ Running perhaps even deeper is the desire of the profession, of courts, and of legislatures to prevent any interference with the uniquely personal relationship between lawyer and client and to maintain untrammeled by outside influences the responsibility which the lawyer owes to the courts he serves.
When an attorney is employed by an association or corporation to represent individual litigants, two problems arise, whether or not the association is organized for profit and no matter how unimpeachable its motives. ”

“ This formula, 'or his legal representatives,' embrace representatives of the original grantee in the land, by contract, such as assignees or grantees, as well as by operation of law, and leaves the question open to inquiry in a court of justice as to the party to whom the certificate, patent, or confirmation, should enure. ”

“ Where the relation of attorney and client exists there is seldom any serious difficulty in determining whether the client has or has not a cause of action, or its nature and extent if one exists. Criterions of standard character are established in legal decisions by which every such controversy may be determined; but in the case before the court the defendant was never retained or employed by the plaintiffs, nor did they ever pay him any thing for making the certificates, nor did he ever perform any service at their request or in their behalf. ”

“ There are four methods by which the relationship of agency arises: (1) By contract; (2) by ratification; (3) by estoppel; (4) by necessity.
WHO IS OR MAY BE AN AGENT.—The law of agency, as between principal and agent, is simply an application of the general law of contracts, but as between third parties and the principal, or agent, new questions arise. The first question is, who is an agent and who is a principal? Any employer is a principal and any employee is an agent. The employer is a principal whether he employs the employee for a single act or whether he employs him for a period of time. ”

“ What the lawyer has to do is to advocate or defend his client's rights, nothing more. This is his use in the community; and when he goes beyond it, he goes beyond what his client has a right to demand or he a right to give. Depend upon it, Lawrence—and you must pardon my plain utterance of what is in my mind—the lawyer who permits himself to use unfair means to gain a client's cause, will not find it a hard task to continue his client's cause year after year, in order, if possible, to swell the amount of his fees. ”

“ PROXIES.—A proxy is simply a written power of attorney to an agent, authorizing him to vote for a stockholder, and there, too, a corporation would be held justified in refusing to recognize any proxy that was not in writing, or any agent who did not have a written proxy even though proxies were not required to be in writing.
LIABILITY OF AGENT TO THIRD PERSONS.—How about the rights and duties of the agent as against the outside world? The agent is liable to a third person if he commits a tort. It does not make any difference that the principal is also liable, the agent is liable too. ”

“ If an attorney or solicitor delays his client's suits to work his own gain or over charges his client, the client can recover his costs and treble damages and the attorney and solicitor shall be disbarred. None may be admitted to any court of the king but such as have been brought up in the same court or is otherwise well-practiced in soliciting of causes and has been found by their dealings to be skillful and honest. An attorney who allows another to use his name shall forfeit 400 shillings and be disbarred. ”

“ But in respect to the limitations of their liability to the precise terms of their contract, and the effect upon such liability of any change in those terms without their consent, their positions are similar. And the law upon these matters is perfectly well settled. ”

“ The articles of association of a company, for example, are just as much true rules of law, as are the provisions of the Companies Acts, or those statutory regulations which apply in the absence of any articles specially agreed upon. So articles of partnership fall within the definition of law, no less than the provisions of the Partnership Act which they are intended to supplement or modify, for both sets of rules are authoritative principles which the courts will apply in all litigation affecting the affairs of the partnership. ”

“ To the extent permissible by law, in civil litigation involving disputes over Federal contracts pursuant to 41 U.S.C. 601 et seq., or in any civil litigation initiated by the United States, litigation counsel shall offer to enter into a two-way fee shifting agreement with opposing parties to the dispute, whereby the losing party would pay the prevailing party's fees and costs, subject to reasonable terms and limitations. ”

“ The transaction of business by the corporation in the state, general or special, appearing, a certificate of service by the proper officer on a person who is its agent there would, in our opinion, be sufficient prima facie evidence that the agent represented the company in the business. It would then be open, when the record is offered as evidence in another state, to show that the agent stood in no representative character to the company, that his duties were limited to those of a subordinate employe, or to a particular transaction, or that his agency had ceased when the matter in suit arose. ”