Maldonado v. Giblin CA6
The issue presented by this appeal is whether a wife needs evidence of agency in order to retain an attorney on behalf of her husband after he has been incapacitated in an accident, thereby giving the attorney a lien against anticipated damages for the husband’s personal injuries.
Here a wife signed a legal services agreement on behalf of her husband, who had been seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident. After the wife discharged the attorney, she successfully resisted the attorney’s assertion of a lien on the ground that she lacked authority to enter into the agreement. Relying on recent case law grounded on decisions dating back to a time when husbands had exclusive management and control of community property, the trial court found that, because there was no evidence of agency, the wife was not authorized to sign the agreement on her husband’s behalf.
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