The case concerned the recovery of costs by a solicitor for acting as steward of a manor. The claim to tax such costs failed: ‘The statute does not authorise the taxation of every pecuniary demand or bill which may be made or delivered by a person who is a solicitor, for every species of employment in which he may happen to be engaged. The business contained in a taxable bill may be business of which no part was transacted in any Court of law or Equity; but I am of opinion that it must be business connected with the profession of an attorney or solicitor – business in which the attorney or solicitor was employed, because he was an attorney or solicitor, or in which he would not have been employed, if he had not been an attorney or solicitor, or if the relation of attorney or solicitor and client had not subsisted between him and his employer. It may perhaps, on some occasions, be questionable, whether the business contained in a solicitor’s bill be or be not such as to make the bill taxable under the Act; but in the present case I do not see any reason to doubt. The relation of solicitor and client did not subsist between Mr Ward and the Petitioners, or any of them, or between Mr Ward and any other person in relation to this matter. He was not employed by the Petitioners because he was a solicitor, but because he was steward of the manor, and he might have been steward of the manor, without being a solicitor. His bill is not as to any part of it a solicitor’s bill; it is a bill of charges claimed to be payable to the steward of the manor, and nothing else; and I am of opinion that the statute gives me no jurisdiction over it.’
Judges:
Lord Langdale MR
Citations:
(1844) 5 Beav 401
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Pine v Law Society CA 20-Feb-2002
The applicant was a solicitor. The Respondent intervened in his practice, and a solicitor agent took it over. The agent submitted its accounts for payment by the Society and the applicant, who then sought to challenge the accounts under the Act. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Legal Professions
Updated: 07 December 2022; Ref: scu.180543