Oviatt v. Smith

(after stating the facts). We may accept defendant’s testimony that he honestly believed that the divorce suit had been “dropped” and his employment at an end when he purchased the property. It may be the attorneys had abandoned hope of getting the parties to a settlement; but independent of defendant’s belief the case as a matter of fact was still pending in court and undisposed of and plaintiff’s rights in the property which he was employed to protect were still unsettled. He had not been discharged and the relation of attorney and client still existed. The property he purchased was that in…