Proof of professional fees requires evidence of agreed quantum; a unilateral invoice alone cannot support the full recovery claim.

Professional services were proved to have been rendered, but the claimant failed to prove a written mandate or independent evidence of the agreed fee for the disputed assignment. A unilateral invoice, without itemised or contemporaneously accepted support, was insufficient to establish the full quantified claim, especially where prior dealings suggested lower charges for similar work. In a recovery action, the burden remains on the claimant to prove not only service performance but also the amount recoverable. The court therefore set aside the decree to the extent of the unsupported amount and reassessed the payable professional fee on the evidence actually on record.

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Issues: Whether the decree for professional fees could be sustained in the absence of a written mandate or independent proof of the agreed quantum of fees.

Analysis: The documentary record showed that professional services had been rendered, but it did not establish any agreed fee for the disputed assignment. The invoice was a unilateral assertion of charges and did not contain an itemised or independently proved basis for quantification. Prior dealings between the parties showed lower charges for similar work, and the evidence did not show any contemporaneous acceptance by the appellants of the amount claimed. In a recovery action, the burden lay on the plaintiff to prove not merely rendition of services but also the amount recoverable therefor. The recorded evidence was insufficient to justify the entire amount originally decreed, though it did support payment for the services actually performed.

Conclusion: The decree for the full claimed amount was set aside in part, and the payable professional fee was reassessed on the basis of the evidence on record. The appellants were held liable only for the reduced sum quantified by the Court.

Ratio Decidendi: Where professional services are proved but the agreed fee is not, the claimant must adduce evidence sufficient to prove quantification of the amount claimed, and a decree cannot rest on a unilateral invoice alone.

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