Hughes v Hughes
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | LORD JUSTICE HODSON |
| Judgment Date | 30 July 1958 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1958] EWCA Civ J0730-3 |
| Date | 30 July 1958 |
| Court | Court of Appeal |
[1958] EWCA Civ J0730-3
In The Supreme Court of Judicature
Court of Appeal
Lord Justice Hodson,
Lord Justice Morris and
Lord Justice Sellers.
Mr. ROGER ORMROD, Q.C., Mr. S.E. BRODIE and Mr. A.N. WILSON (instructed by Mr. Edward Isaacs) appeared on behalf of Mr. Edward Isaacs, Appellant.
Miss ANITA RYAN (instructed by Messrs. Adams & Co.) appeared on behalf of the Respondent Petitioner.
: This is the judgment of the Court.
This is an appeal from an Order of Mr. Justice Wrangham affirming a decision of Mr. Registrar Compton Miller dated the 31st March, 1958, directing a solicitor, Mr. Isaacs, to deliver to the Petitioner's present solicitors, Messrs. Adams &Co., the papers in his possession relating to the cause. The cause is a suit for divorce.
The question involved is an important one, although it is in this case, as the Petitioner now recognises, of no significance, since there are said to be no papers in the possession of Mr. Isaacs which the Petitioner cannot get on without. There is no evidence as to the nature of the papers in question except that they include an Opinion of Counsel and some draft particulars. Accordingly the appeal has not been resisted, but the judgment must stand unless the Appellant succeeds in his contention that the Order ought not to have been made, whether the Petitioner himself takes any personal interest in the result of these apparently futile proceedings or not.
The Petitioner originally instructed Messrs. Elvy Robb & Co., but on the 11th November, 1957, he discharged this firm and instructed as his new solicitor Mr. Isaacs, who took over the papers, giving at the same time a written undertaking to respect the lien of Messrs. Elvy Robb & Co. On the 26th March, 1938, the Petitioner discharged Mr. Isaacs and subsequently instructed his present solicitors. As a matter of history, the Petitioner appears to have followed a managing clerk who was at one time with Messrs. Elvy Robb, afterwards with Mr. Isaacs, from whose employment he was discharged in December 1957, and is now in the employment of Messrs. Adams & Co.
The importance of the question lies in this: Mr. Isaacs asserts that he has a lien upon such papers as there are which he is entitled to assert against the Petitioner without qualification.
There is no doubt that a solicitor who is discharged by his client during an action otherwise than for misconduct can retain any papers in the cause in his possession until his costs have been paid. See In re ( Rapid Road Transit Co. 1909, 1 Ch. 96). This rule applies, as the authorities show, whether the client's papers are of any intrinsic value or not, although it would seem that so far as the solicitor's working papers are concerned, where the work has not been paid for by the client, the solicitor would not be compelled to hand over his work unless it had been paid for, apart altogether from the lien.
The authorities, however, draw...
To continue reading
Request your trial
- Ccom Pty Ltd v Jiejing Pty Ltd
-
Udoamaka Onuigbo (also known as OKORONKWO) v R
...than for misconduct he cannot, so long as his costs are unpaid, be compelled to produce or hand over the papers even in a divorce case [ Hughes v Hughes [1958] P 224, [1980] 3 All ER 179]. If, on the other hand, he discharges himself, he may be ordered to hand over the papers to the new sol......
- Bentley and Another v Gaisford and Another
-
Gamlen Chemical Company (U.K.) Ltd v Rochem Ltd
...papers even in the course of litigation, and the solicitor who discharges himself, was clearly recognised in Mr Ormrod's argument in Hughes -v- Hughes, as late as 1978, at page 226 of the Probate Division Reports for that year, where he said: "An important distinction is drawn between (1) a......
-
The Parliamentary Ombudsman : his functions, position, and relation to the Chancellor of Justice in Finland
...Journal of the International Commission of JO-ämbetet Arbetar, « Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift », 1961, Jurists », 1958, p. 224; « Parliamentary Affairs », pp. 201-220. In addition to these, outside Scandinavia, p. 199; « Wisconsin Law Review », ......