Citations
- 68 Ohio St. 3d 570
Full opinion text
Alice Robie Resnick, J.
In Fox & Associates Co., L.P.A. v. Purdon (1989), 44 Ohio St.3d 69, 541 N.E.2d 448, syllabus, this court held: “When an attorney is discharged by a client with or without just cause, and whether the contract between the attorney and client is express or implied, the attorney is entitled to recover the reasonable value of services rendered the client prior to discharge on the basis of quantum meruit. (Scheinesohn v. Lemonek [1911], 84 Ohio St. 424, 95 N.E. 913, and Roberts v. Montgomery [1926], 115 Ohio St. 502, 154 N.E. 740, overruled.)” Thus, pursuant to Fox, even if an attorney is discharged without cause, and even if a contingent fee agreement is in effect at the time of the discharge, the discharged attorney recovers on the basis of quantum meruit, and not pursuant to the terms of the agreement.
Fox overruled several precedents, Scheinesohn, supra, and Roberts, supra, which had held that when a contingent-fee contract is breached by a client without just cause, the measure of damages is the full contract price, not the reasonable value of services rendered by the attorney prior to being discharged by the client. This court in Fox, by limiting a discharged attorney to a quantum meruit recovery, abandoned the so-called “traditional rule,” now followed in a small minority of jurisdictions, in favor of a new emerging majority rule. See Sloan, Quantum Meruit: Residual Equity in Law (1992), 42 De Paul L.Rev. 399, 439 (rule in most jurisdictions today is that discharged attorney may recover “only on a quantum meruit basis” [emphasis sic ]). See, generally, Annotation, Limitation to Quantum Meruit Recovery, Where Attorney Employed Under Contingent Fee Contract Is Discharged Without Cause (1979), 92 A.L.R.3d 690.
The quantum meruit rule adopted by the court in Fox “strikes the proper balance by providing clients greater freedom in substituting counsel, and in promoting confidence in the legal profession while protecting the attorney’s right to be compensated for services rendered.” 44 Ohio St.3d at 72, 541 N.E.2d at 450. See Fracasse v. Brent (1972), 6 Cal.3d 784, 792, 100 Cal.Rptr. 385, 390, 494 P.2d 9, 14; Rosenberg v. Levin (Fla.1982), 409 So.2d 1016, 1020.
One of the central tenets of the Fox approach is that a client has an absolute right to discharge an attorney or law firm at any time, with or without cause, .subject to the obligation to compensate the attorney or firm for services rendered prior to the discharge. See 44 Ohio St.3d at 72, 541 N.E.2d at 450. Cf. Model Rules of Professional Conduct (1992), Rule 1.16, Comment at 57 (“A client has a right to discharge a lawyer at any time, with or without cause, subject to liability for payment for the lawyer’s services.”). See Rosenberg, supra, 409 So.2d at 1020 (