Freeman & Mills, Inc. v. Belcher Oil Company

Belcher (defendant) hired law firm Morgan to defend a lawsuit, and Morgan in turn hired Freeman (plaintiff) to provide accounting services for Belcher's benefit; when Belcher's new general counsel became dissatisfied and fired Morgan, telling it to have Freeman stop work, Freeman's unpaid bills went to both Morgan and Belcher. Belcher denied any obligation to pay Freeman, claiming it had never been consulted about the scope of Freeman's work under the Morgan contract. Freeman sued Belcher for bad-faith denial of the underlying contract under the tort recognized in Seaman's Direct Buying Service v. Standard Oil, and a jury found Belcher acted in bad faith; the trial court entered judgment for Freeman, but the appellate court reversed.