Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.
In September 1984 the nonparty appellant, an attorney, was engaged by the defendant-respondent to represent him in the instant action for a divorce and ancillary relief. The appellant charged $175 an hour for his time and $25 an hour for his paralegal's time. In December 1986 the appellant was discharged by the defendant-respondent, not for cause. Between the time he was hired and the time he was discharged the appellant submitted 19 invoices to the defendant-respondent, charging a total of $65,356.94 for some 374 hours of his own time and 29 1/4 hours of his paralegal's time. The defendant-respondent had paid $37,195.07. When the defendant-respondent failed to execute a confession of judgment for the remaining amount of $28,161.87, the appellant asserted his common-law retaining lien on the file in his possession.
The Supreme Court properly rejected the appellant's claim that there was an account stated between him and the defendant-respondent (see, Rodkinson v Haecker, 248 N.Y. 480, 485). In the absence of an account stated the appellant was properly awarded the fair and reasonable value of his services under a quantum meruit theory (see, Matter of Montgomery, 272 N.Y. 323, 326; see also, Jacobson v Sassower, 66 N.Y.2d 991, 993; Demov, Morris, Levin Shein v Glantz, 53 N.Y.2d 553). Mollen, P.J., Thompson, Kunzeman and Spatt, JJ., concur.