Melvin v. Aldridge
Melvin v. Aldridge
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The plaintiffs entered into a written agreement with the defendants, by the terms of which the latter were to take charge of, manage, lay out and plat into suitable lots certain lands owned by the former on the south side of Severn River, about one mile from Annapolis,. and to develop and sell the same under certain conditions, as stipulated in the agreement just mentioned. It will be unnecessary for us to rehearse all these stipulations, for the main contention upon the merits of the case is based alone upon that which relates to the compensation the defendants are entitled to.
The plaintiffs filed their bill in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, charging the defendants with having violated their contract in almost every particular, and with having combined and confederated for the purpose of injuring and defrauding the plaintiffs. The bill asked for a
The Court below adopted that of the plaintiff, and by its order of the I2th Ottober, 1894, overruled the defendants exceptions thereto, except as to the one item of forty-two dollars and thirty-four cents, and sustained all the exceptions of the plaintiffs to the defendants’ accounts. From this decreee of the ■ 12th October, 1894, the defendants have appealed, and have thus presented several questions.
The plaintiffs contend that there is only one question before us, and that is the correctness of the accounts which were ratified below, while the defendants insist that by virtue of their appeal they also bring up the question of the juris
The only questions, therefore, now open for review, are those presented by the decree ratifying the accounts filed by the plaintiffs. This account, which is designated as “Account Complainants, No. 1,” was ratified by the order of the 12th of October, 1894, with one modification, namely, an additional credit of $42.34 was allowed the defendants, thus making the total indebtedness found to be due by the defendants to the plaintiffs to be the sum of $1,673.27, with interest from the institution of the suit. There was no objection made to> the accuracy of the ratified account, but the objections are confined to the principles upon which it is stated. We think, however, there is no error in this respect. The claims set up by the defendant cannot be maintained.
1. Upon a fair and reasonable construction of the contract, whatever may have been the practice of the parties under it, we think it clear that the defendants, as agents, had no authority to collect and receive from the purchasers the proceeds of sales of lots. On the contrary,
2. The next claim made by the defendants is that they should have been "allowed commissions on the entire purchase money out of the first instalments collected by them. But such a contention is based on neither justice, reason nor authority. It is true that the general rule has often been approved by this and many other Courts, that commissions are earned when the agent or broker finds á purchaser able and willing to complete the purchase according to the terms agreed on, and who ultimately becomes the purchaser. Kimberly v. Henderson et al., 29 Md. 515. If the purchase money be not paid by the fault of the vendor, the agent would still be entitled to his compensation. But, as was held in Richards v. Jackson, 31 Md. 253, the meaning of Kimberly v. Henderson is that “it is not sufficient to entitle the broker to commissions that the purchaser should enter into an agreement to purchase, but he must actually purchase, by complying with the terms agreed on, unless his failure to do so is occasioned by the fault of the vendor.” The only fair and equitable rule where the purchase money is, as here, payable in instalments, is to allow commissions on the instalments as paid from time to time, for until they are actually paid the terms of the sale have not been complied with. Any other construction would only offer inducements to sell for the purpose of securing all of
3. The defendants claimed, as their own, all instalments paid to them in cases in which the whole purchase money was not paid, and the purchasers have abandoned their purchases. We entirely agree with what the learned Judges below said in regard to this claim. They characterized it as “utterly untenable; not within the terms or spirit of the contract; by no rational construction to be inferred therefrom, and repugnant to every principle of law and equity.”
4- Interest was properly allowed. The defendants, as agents, should have promptly paid over to their principals the amounts collected, less commissions, as provided by the contract, and having failed to do so, they have no reason to complain if they are required to pay interest from the institution of the suit.
5. Nor do we see how the Court below could have done otherwise than reject the credit claimed by the defendants for money loaned to J. West Aldridge — that being a. transaction between them and him in which the other plaintiffs are in no wise interested.
Finding no error, the decree of the 12th October, 1894, will be affirmed.
Decree affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GEORGE T. MELVIN and HENRY S. MANCHA v. J. WEST ALDRIDGE
- Cited By
- 14 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Obection to the Jurisdiction — Accounting between Principal and Agent —Commissions of Real Estate Agents on Sales of Property Payable in Instalments — Interest. A bill in equity was filed for an injunction, the rescission of a contract, and a discovery and account of money received by the defendants, as agents of the plaintiffs, to sell certain lands. The defendants, while denying the material allegations of the bill in their answer, professed their readiness to account. The bill was dismissed as to all the relief asked for except an accounting. No special exception . was filed to the jurisdiction of equity to decree payment of the sum due, but the same was made in the argument below. Held, that this objection to the jurisdiction could not be availed of on appeal. The contract in this case provided that the defendants, as agents of the owners of a tract of land, should lay out, develop and sell the same in lots and be entitled to certain commissions on sales. Some of the lots were sold under contracts by which the purchase money was made payable in instalments. Held, 1st. That the agents are not entitled to the full commission on the entire price of a lot out of the first instalment collected by them, but are entitled only to commissions on the instalments as paid from time to time. 2nd. That when purchasers renounced their contracts and forfeited instalments already paid, the agents are not entitled to the whole of such instalments. 3rd. That the agents are liable for interest on all amounts collected by them and not paid over promptly to their principals, less their commissions. 4th. That the agents are not entitled to credit for money loaned by them to one of the owners, that being a transaction in which his co-owners were not concerned. The contract in the above case also provided that, until a certain mortgage incumbrance on the land should be paid, the money arising from the sale of lots should be applied by the owners to the payment of the mortgage. Held,, that the agents had no authority to collect such purchase money.