Ansley v. Westbrook
Ansley v. Westbrook
Opinion of the Court
The petition in this case, in which it was sought to recover a commission for procuring a purchaser of the defendant’s -real estate, set out a cause of action, and it was not error to overrule the general demurrer.
Judgment affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. Westbrook & McDonald, real-estate brokers, sued Ansley for commissions on a written contract whereby he placed with them as sole agents for a term of fifteen days, from April 16, 1918, the date of the contract, a city lot for sale for $7,000, on a commission basis of 5% to them. The' petition alleged: that on April 39, 1918, pláintiffs procured a customer who, upon their agreeing to pay him $50 out of their commissions, thus making the price $6,950, contracted to take the place; that they secured a check from their customer for $500 to be paid to Ansley for the purchase of said property, and secured a written contract signed by H. B. Seal, the purchaser, and that they offered Ansley the $500 and asked him to sign the contract approving the sale, and he refused either to sign the contract or pay them their commission. This contract (attached as an exhibit to the
The petition was demurred to generally and specially, and, after amendments had been allowed, all demurrers were overruled. The first amendment was in substance that after the purchaser offered to buy for $6,950, the plaintiffs went to the defendant on April 30, 1918, and acquainted him with the fact that the $50 necessary to make the consideration $7,000 (as per contract) wordd be paid by the petitioners; that the said Ansley agreed to the same, but asked for a few days delay, in order that he might obtain another house for himself to move to, and that the terms of sale were all satisfactory and not objected to at that time by Ansley, and that the petitioners were advised that he would comply and only wanted a few days to obtain another house. The other amendment was, in effect, that Ansley requested time to look for a house, as set out in the previous amendment, and that the purchaser secured by the petitioners remained ready, willing, able, and anxious to buy and taire the property as set out, and that Ansley waited until May 3, 1918, when he finally refused to sell the property or pay commissions. The plaintiffs alleged that it rvas a universal custom, and that the petitioners and Ansley contracted with a view to the custom,' that upon the sale of real estate, when the parties have agreed on the purchase-price, a small amount is paid down on a contract signed by the seller and purchaser, and the purchaser is then allowed time to employ an attorney and haAre.the title to the property investigated, and, after the title is approved, the trade is consummated by payment of the remainder of the purchase-money and execution of deeds to the property.
Construing the pleadings against the pleader, I think that at most Ansley only agreed to make an agreement, and that a final and binding agreement was never entered into between him and the vendee. “The purchaser produced by the broker and the principal of the latter must come to a final, binding agreement on the terms of the transaction. The making of a mere preliminary or tentative agreement, which is not binding on the parties and which is not carried into effect, does not give the broker a right to com
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.