Eldorado Coal Co. v. Rust Shelburne
Eldorado Coal Co. v. Rust Shelburne
Opinion of the Court
“The theory of the law is that when the broker has brought the minds of the buyer and seller to an agreement upon all the terms of sale, and the buyer is able, ready, and willing to buy, this is a constructive consummation of the sale, so far as the broker is concerned, because he has done all that he was required to do.” Sayre v. Wilson, supra.
Here, according to the plaintiff’s evidence, which seems to have been accepted by the jury, they had closed a trade with the G. F. & A. R. R. for 10,000 tons of coal covering a year by weekly delivery at the price authorized, and nothing further remained for them to do. The sale was sufficiently definite and in pursuance of the authority given by the defendant to the plaintiffs, as per the testimony of Rust. The defendant claims that the purchaser was to supply equipment for moving the coal, and that this was a condition precedent. This was denied by Rust, and if this was not a condition precedent to the authority to sell or find a purchaser it was not necessary for the plaintiffs to have provided for same in their negotiations with the buyer, for the failure to provide for this in the offer or contract of sale did not render the'same so indefinite as to render the transaction invalid, for in the absence of such a stipulation the law would determine whose duty it was to furnish or procure the equipment for moving the coal, which would be a question between the buyer and seller and with which the broker would not be concérned. If this stipulation was not embodied in their authority to sell, then the brokers did not have to provide for or against same in their negotiations with customers, as the sale would be subject to the law of usage and custom in this respect.
The case of Cronin v. American Co., 163 Ala. 533, 50 South. 915, 136 Am. St. Rep. 88, is not in conflict with this holding. That was a case where the would-be seller terminated the contract with the broker before he produced the buyer, and the only possible bearing that it can have upon this case is in the citation and discussion of the case of Worthington v. McGarry, 149 Ala. 251, 42 South. 988, and which said last case is easily differentiated from the case at bar. There the plaintiff had not done all that he was employed or authorized to do; he was employed to secure an option on two properties mentioned (certain ore lands and the *627 majority of stock in a corporation). He did procure the option on the ore lands, hut not upon the stock, as the defendant directed him not to do so, and undertook to get it himself. The court held that the contract related to both properties, and that, notwithstanding the plaintiff procured the option on the land, he had not performed his contract as to the stock, and if prevented from doing so by the defendant he should sue for a breach of the contract, and not upon the common counts. Here the plaintiffs did all that they had to do, and, according to their evidence, the right to sell the coal had not been withdrawn or prevented by the defendant, and as between these parties the contract was consummated by the plaintiffs, and as to them nothing remained for the defendant to' do except to pay them.
The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Eldorado Coal Co. v. Rust & Shelburne
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- 8 cases
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- Published