Yeshiva
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- P'ninat Mishpat
Case: The defendant (=def) was suing a leasing company and hired the plaintiff (=pl), a lawyer, to help. After negotiating the fee, they came to an agreement that pl would receive the higher between, 20% of the total ruling, and between 100% of the part of the award that exceeded 40,000 shekels plus VAT. Def received 67,049 shekels and pl is demanding his portion of the ruling. Def rejects the claim, because he has not yet been able to extract payment from his litigant, arguing that the portion for pl should come from money received. Additionally, def claims that he fired pl before the ruling was rendered, and so pl is not entitled to any pay.
P'ninat Mishpat (835)
Various Rabbis
481 - Fee for Yishuv for Allowing Purchase of a Housing Unit
482 - Firing a Lawyer before He Finishes the Job
483 - Enforcing Security Responsibilities
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Regarding the claim that pl did not finish the job, it is indeed the case that def had been dissatisfied with pl’s work and initiated a process of firing him. However, the sides met, and pl explained the way he was working in a manner that calmed def. We do not find any proof that pl was let go (certainly no one fully took his place).
In any case, an employer is not allowed to fire a worker who had been hired for a set job once a kinyan had been made to hire him (Shulchan Aruch, CM 334:1). The Pitchei Teshuva (ad loc. 2) cites opinions that this is the case even if there is only a written contract, even if it is not signed. It seems to us that an agreement communicated by email similarly counts as a kinyan. Thus, it would require pl’s agreement to stop working for him, and there has not been proof of that.
Furthermore, def’s claim is that pl’s employment was terminated 5 months after it began and two months before the ruling was rendered. It is therefore not reasonable (as opposed to a reasonable but halachically incorrect claim) for def to not have offered pl significant payment for the work he did (even if we were to accept def’s claim that the agreement for payment was only after the receipt of payment by def’s litigant). Therefore, in addition to full payment, def will also have to pay pl’s legal fees related to this adjudication, as he did not act in good faith.
Various Rabbis
Various Rabbis including those of of Yeshivat Bet El, such as Rabbi Chaim Katz, Rabbi Binyamin Bamberger and Rabbi Yitzchak Greenblat and others.
Moreshet Shaul Moreshet Shaul: A Crown and its Scepter – part II
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 294-5
P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: Tuition Payment after Withdrawing Student
based on ruling 85142 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
