The Second Appellate District affirmed a judgment. The court held that clients whose fee agreement with their attorney created a lien violated that agreement by making a post-judgment settlement that effectively denied the attorney any recovery under a fee award that was part of the judgment.
Frank Martini and his brother Satanand Sharma (collectively, Martini) hired James Little to represent them in a lawsuit against them filed by the Amber Hotel Company. Little’s retainer agreement specified an hourly fee, a portion of which would be deferred as a lien and collected in full against any fee award made by the trial court. Under the agreement, Little was entitled to all of any such fee award. In any event, Martini would be liable for all deferred fees.
