Venegas v. Mitchell

Venegas (defendant) retained Mitchell (plaintiff) as his attorney in a civil rights claim under a contingent-fee agreement providing Mitchell 40 percent of any gross recovery. Venegas won at trial and the court awarded him $117,000 in attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, $75,000 of which was attributed to Mitchell's work; Mitchell then asserted a lien for his full 40 percent contingency fee, which exceeded the court-awarded amount, and Venegas argued the court-awarded fees superseded and invalidated his obligation to pay the higher contingency percentage. The district court sided with Mitchell, awarding him his full contingency share, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed before the Supreme Court granted certiorari.