Rhoades v. Norfolk & Western Railway Co.

This appeal involves an action to recover attorney’s fees allegedly due under a contingent-fee contract entered into between Chapman and Chapman, a law firm in Granite City, and William D. Rhoades, an employee of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company. The Norfolk and Western was named a party defendant because it paid a personal injury settlement to Rhoades against which the Chapman firm asserted an attorney’s lien under section 1 of “An Act creating attorney’s lien and for enforcement of same” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 13, par. 14).

On January 11, 1976, Rhoades sustained a knee injury…