Silver Street (D) is the record owner of a parcel of real estate with a mortgage in New England Educational Service, Inc.'s (P) favor. D had acquired the property without notice of P's mortgage. D's interest had been improperly indexed. D was notified of the encumbrance and entered into negotiations to settle the dispute. Those negotiations failed because the predecessors in title refused to cooperate, and P filed a foreclosure action. D retained an attorney to help settle the problem and authorized the attorney to offer $10,000. That offer was refused. The trial court granted P's summary judgment against D in foreclosure in that the attorney had made a $60,000 settlement of P's complaint that was accepted. D appealed.