Latest Important Cases Aerial Navigation. See Patents. Attorney and Client. Equitable Lien for Attorney's Services on Funds Not Passing through His Hands-Contingent Fees. D. C. The beneficiary of certain legacies, having reason to fear an attack on the will, engaged counsel to resist possible litigation, and entered with him into an agreement under which he was to receive compensation in the form of contingent fees. About two years later, the attorney having prevented any contest of the will or any compromise of a claim. the client received from the executor a sum of money in cash and real estate notes. On this fund the lawyer insisted that he had an equitable lien, and this was the question presented, on appeal, in De Winter v. Thomas, which was decided Dec. 7 by the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia (Washing ton Law Rep, Dec. 17).
Mr. Chief Justice Shepard, delivering the opinion of the Court, denied that an equitable lien was thus created, and said:— “It may be conceded that where the situa tion of the parties and the attendant circum stances favor such a construction, an agree
ment to pay a certain percentage of a fund may be deemed equivalent to a promise to pay the same out of the said fund. But where either expression is used, the intent must appear that the fund itself is looked to for security. It is true that the fee in this case was contingent upon success in the
privileges and benefits on a class which, by the law. and not by conditions are denied to another class, in the same business or calling,
and which privileges and benefits so conferred on the favored class may be and are em ployed to impair and destroy the business of those belonging to the excluded class, is inhibited by the provisions in the fourteenth amendment to the national Constitution." Conflict 0! Laws.
See Wills and Adminis
tration.
Defamation. Publication at Point of Desti nation of the Libelous Matter-jurisdiction of Federal Courts—5ta¢e Offenses. U. S. The indictment against the Press Publish ing Company, publishers of the New York World, charging Joseph Pulitzer and others with criminal libel against Theodore Roose velt, President Taft and others, was quashed Jan. 26 in the United States District Court at New York City. Judge Hough, in rendering his decision, said, in part:— “It is charged here that the crime of send ing libelous matter through the mails is pun ishable at the place of destination of the libelous matter. In this case we have an alleged libel that was published in New York city and sent out into Orange county. But we find that in the distribution made in Orange county it happened to be disseminated at West Point, a territory ceded to the govern
undertaking, and the defendant was not to be
ment, and therefore the action comes up in
bound to pay any compensation unles these should be a final establishment of the will and distribution under its terms. Until some money or other property should be obtained under the will there was no personal liability of the defendant for services per formed by the complainant.
this court. “The law that has been invoked here is, I take it, simply a territorial convenience, and therefore, in this case, if any crime has been committed it is to be regarded rather as an ofiense against the state of New York which happened to be committed on government land than an ofiense against the government under the statute." (See discussion in New
Banking. Kansas Bank Deposit Guaranty Law Unc0nstitutional—Fourteenth Amend ment— Unjust Discrimination. U. S. The bank deposit guaranty law of Kansas has been held unconstitutional as discrimina tory by the United States Circuit Court. The opinion, written by Judge John C. Pollock, contained the following words:— “In the light of authorities it must be held, a legislative enactment that confers special
York Law journal, Feb. 2.)
Interstate Commerce. Charter Fees Levied by State on Foreign Corporations——-Inlerstate and Intro-state Commerce.
U. S.
The general attitude of the Supreme Court of the United States toward the proposed federal incorporation of corporations and allied questions connected with the interpretation
