1 No. 36
Banque Indosuez,
Appellant,
v.
Sopwith Holdings Corp., et al.,
Respondents.
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Sopwith Holdings Corp., et al.,
Sopwith Holdings Corp., et al., Plaintiffs,
Appellants, v.
Algol Investment Company Limited, et al., Banque Indosuez, et al.,
Plaintiffs, Defendants.
v.
(And Two Additional Related
Banque Indosuez, Actions.)
Respondent,
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
1 No. 37 Defendants.
Banque Indosuez,
Respondent,
(And Other Actions.)
v.
Sopwith Holdings Corp., et al.,
Appellants, et al.,
Defendants.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Case No. 36:
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2002 NY Int. 50
May 2, 2002
SNIPPETS:
Banque Indosuez, Appellant, v. Sopwith Holdings Corp., et al., Respondents.
Plaintiffs, Defendants.
This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the New York
These appeals arise from a dispute between a bank and certain of its corporate customers who
The parties' competing claims were adjudicated in a consolidated action.
our focus is on the narrow issue of whether an attorney's charging lien acquired by
Under the facts and circumstances presented, we hold that the attorneys' lien is subordinate
an attorney's charging lien is governed by statute (see Judiciary Law § 475).
As this Court observed in Goodrich v McDonald ), under the common law, the attorney's lien
Thus, by the end of the nineteenth century, New York statutes and case law gave attorneys
"rom the commencement of an action, special or other proceeding in any court or before any
the lien cannot be affected by any settlement between the parties before or after judgment, final
The central issue in these appeals concerns the long- standing controversy over the priority
Each company executed a contract with the Bank entitled "Foreign Exchange Line with Cash
Relying on its Agreements with the Sopwith defendants, the Bank contended that it was owed
Supreme Court disagreed, finding that although the Sopwith defendants' judgment should be set
We granted the Bank leave to appeal, bringing up for review the Appellate Division's order
For as long as courts have recognized and enforced attorneys' liens, there has been tension
As Judge Cardozo artfully described, this issue "revives the smouldering fires of an ancient
We therefore hold that where competing claims arise out of the same transaction or
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