An attorney's lien for services in procur ing a judgment is limited to the attorney of record and does not extend to attorneys em ployed to assist him; Foster v. Danforth, 59 Fed. 750; nor does It extend to prospec tive services; Massachusetts & Southern Const. Co. v. Gill's Creek Tp., 48 Fed. 145. An attorney whose services are employed merely in defending the title to land has no lien upon the land for his services; Greer v. Ferguson, 56 Ark. 324, 19 S. W. 966; nor is there a lien on land recovered; Hogg v. Dower, 36 W. Va. 200, 14 S. E. 995. The attorney for defendant is not entitled to any lien so as to prevent a settlement by de fendant, where the answer simply sets up a defence and not a counterclaim ; White v. Sumner, 16 App. Div. 70, 44 N. Y. Supp. 692. And the right of an attorney to a lien on his client's papers is lost by the substitution of another attorney in his place on his refusal to go on with the case without the payment of fees which he claims to have already earned; Halbert v. Gibbs, 16 App. Div. 126, 45 N. Y. Supp. 113. No lien can accrue in favor of the attorney for plaintiff where the action is settled by plaintiff before defend ant has notice of the attorney's claim for a lien; Cobbey v. Dorland, 50 Neb. 373, 69 N. W. 951. But acceptance of a client's note for his fee is not a waiver of his statutory lien; Davis v. Jackson, 86 Ga. 138, 12 S. E. 299.
Where an attorney having a lien on a judgment takes an assignment thereof to himself, and claims the absolute "ownership of the judgment, he relinquishes whatever rights he might have been entitled to by vir tue of his lien ; Whitehead v. Jessup, 7 Colo. App. 460, 43 Pac. 1042 ; and taking an inde pendent security to secure payment of his fee waives his lien, even though the security proves unvailable ; Fulton v. Harrington, 7 Roust. (Del.) 182, 30 Atl. 856.
It has been held that, where a judgment requires the claim of an intervening credi tor of the plaintiff to be first paid out of the an,munt for which the plaintiff has judg ment, the right of the &editor is superior to the lien of an attorney ; Ward v. Sher bondy, 96 Ia. 477, 65 N. W. 413. An attorney's lien is subordinate to the right of the ad verse party to any proper set-off, or other available defences ; Field v. Maxwell, 44
Neb. 900, 63 N. W. 62; Hroch v. Aultman & Taylor Co., 3 S. D. 477, 54 N. W. 269.
In a contract for a one-half contingent fee, the attorney has a lien on the judgment therein, and this operates as an assignment to the extent of the lien, but there would be no lien before judgment; Grand Rapids & I. Ry. Co. v. Circuit Judge, 161 Mich. 181, 126 N. W. 56, 137 Am. St. Rep. 495.
See, generally, Weeks, Attys.; Beames, Costs; Cross, Liens; 26 Alb. L. J. 271; 31 Am. Dec. 755-9 ; 20 Am. L. Rev. 727, 821; 21 id. 70; 10 Am. L. Rec. 200; 19 Centr. L. J. 394 ; 27 id. 194.
Equitable Liens are such as exist in equity, and of which courts of equity alone take cognizance.
A court of equity will raise equitable liens for the purpose of justice, and if a lien could not be created otherwise, could even make a company execute a conveyance for that purpose; Skiddy v. R. Co., 3 Hughes 320, Fed. Cas. No. 12,922.
A lien is neither a /us in re nor a jus ad rem; It is not property in the thing, nor does it constitute a right of action for the thing. It more properly constitutes a charge upon the thing. In regard to these liens, it may be generally stated that they arise from constructive trusts. They are, there fore, wholly independent of the possession of the thing to which they are attached as an incumbrance ; and they can he enforced only in courts of equtty; Story, Eq. Jur. § 1215.
An equitable lien on a sale of realty is very different from a lien at law ; for it operates after the possession has been chang ed, and is available by way of charge instead of detainer. Ad. Eq. 127.
Every express executory agreement in writing, whereby the contracting party suffl ciently indicates an intention to make some particular property, real or personal, or fund therein identified, a security for a debt or other obligation, or whereby the party prom ises to convey, assign, or transfer the proper ty as security, creates an equitable lien upon the property so indicated which is enforce able against the property ; Knott v. Mfg. Co., 30 W. Va. 790, 5 S. E. 266.