Teodore Dorotee Autera v. Manuel Dudley Robinson, Anthony C. Autera v. Manuel Dudley Robinson

SPOTTSWOOD W. ROBINSON, III, Circuit Judge:

In an action for negligence brought by appellants, husband and wife, against appellees, the District Court entered a judgment for $4,000 in appellants’ favor on appellees’ motion alleging an oral agreement to settle the case at that amount. 1 The negligence claim, never itself litigated, was simultaneously dismissed with prejudice. Appellants assail this disposition on the grounds that the parties never made a legally binding bargain, and that the attorney who then represented appellants 2 had no authority to commit them to such an arrangement.

On the…