Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

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To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

I was also getting established in the profession by scraping along. Uncle got me some small jobs and eventually would get more work but no money.I learned the lesson that a lot of people learned that it did not pay to work for your relations.

Uncle Fred sent me a client and it was a tough case. She was related to Uncle. And probably was one of the first live in girl friends in the 60s. It  would not be years before it would come out in the open. Her case was difficult because there was a state statute that said that kind of situation was illegal and there would be no recovery. I talked to Uncle Vincent about it and he said try the case. Eve if you're going against a statute at least you will get some experience. So I accepted. And began to discuss the pros and cons with the client. It arose from the fact that her man promised to marry her but put it off. He went to Italy for a visit and there he found his love and married. The moment that she received the telegram she sought a lawyer. He took the case, but as it began to get close to trial he wanted to opt out and told her. That's how I got the case.

When I told her that she was not in a good position because of the statute she said I'm not suing for that. I'm suing him for the work I did of maintaining his house, getting his children to school, lunch, etc. etc. The trial lasted two days and it was a circus. She did exceedingly well on the stand. When asked by opposing council if she had slept with the defendant her answer won the case. She said that is not your business, nor his pointing to the judge and then the jury and went on I'm suing him for and went down the line to all the things she did like cleaning the house, washing clothes, cooking, shopping, and taking care of the children. The jury came back with a verdict for my client. And gave her a nice sum of money for the economic condition we were in. I also did well.

And the next case I did even better it was turned over to me by one of my professors. A trust which the client wanted to discontinue. But whether ti could be done was within the discretion of the trustee. It had been on going for some time. The trustee was a rich brother who ran a business and he hired his brother (my client) who was with his wife spendthrift which was the reason for the trust. Any way I talked with the other side's lawyer who was a district attorney at one time. The rich brother would not agree to anything. So I put my case forward the told that attorney even if my client should lose as long as the rich brother held to the trust he would be facing another suit for another reason, etc. About a week later I got a call and there was an agreement and papers were signed and I received $33,000 in settlement. My fee was one third and I had to give my professor one third for his giving me the case. We lived on this for a while. We also went on the town on the night I paid the prof. off. Dinner with our wives and a Broadway production.