Hiring Goons

Something interesting happens in Cape Fear that goes unnoticed because everyone's concerned with Max Cady killing the family dog and going after a young Juliette Lewis, and that's the fact that Nick Nolte hires goons to bring Cady down, but they fail to do their job. So my question is this, if you hire goons to put a hurt on someone, and they in turn get hurt by the person they're after, do you still have to pay them?

There are a couple of schools of thought on this subject. The first is, yes, you still have to pay them. Like all hired services, you still have to pay because you're essentially paying for time. Say you hire someone to fix your car, pay them and get your car back and it still sucks. You're obviously not going to get your money back, and usually don't bring that mechanic any business anymore. I'm sure you have to pay upfront in the hired goon business too.

The second school of thought is, no, you don't pay them. This would only happen if the goons didn't require upfront payment. I don't think this would happen though, because even if they didn't require upfront payment, and they fail, these are still seedy people who you hired because they were stronger than you to do something you couldn't. When they come for payment and you say, "BUT YOU DIDN'T DO THE JOB! IN FACT, YOU JUST MADE IT WORSE!" I imagine the reply you'll get is, "Fuck you, pay me!" Followed up by if you don't pay them, you're probably going to have a broken body party part.