In 1908 the plaintiff, who was a house agent, was employed by the defendant to find a tenant for a house at a rent of 120 pounds a year or a purchaser for 2500 pounds. The plaintiff found a tenant who took the house for a term of three years with the option of continuing the tenancy for five or seven years at the rent of 110 pounds a year, and he was paid commission on the letting. At the end of the three years the tenant, as a condition of his continuing the tenancy for a further term, required the defendant to build an addition to the house. The defendant refused to do so, and thereupon the question of purchasing the house arose, and the defendant agreed to sell it to the tenant’s wife for 1900 pounds. The plaintiff, after the original letting, had nothing to do with the negotiations which led up to the sale. The plaintiff sued the defendant in the county court to recover commission on the sale. The county court judge found that, though the plaintiff introduced the property to the tenant and his wife, that introduction was not the effective cause of the subsequent sale, and he. gave judgment for the defendant.
Held: The county court judge had applied the proper test, and had found against the plaintiff’s claim upon evidence which entitled him so to find, and that his decision must be affirmed.
[1914] 2 KB 621, [1914] UKLawRpKQB 66
Commonlii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Charania v Harbour Estates Ltd CA 27-Oct-2009
The defendant appealed against the award of the estate agent’s fees, acting under a sole agency agreement. The agreement had been terminated. A buyer who had seen the property first under the agency later returned and negotiated a purchase.
Cited – Wells v Devani SC 13-Feb-2019
Mr W was selling apartments in a block of flats. Mr D, an estate agent, sought commission. W argued that D had not had signed his terms, and that therefore no contract existed. The court considered whether a contract had come into being when a major . .
Cited – Dennis Reed Ltd v Goody CA 1950
Two home owners instructed the plaintiff agents to ‘find a person ready, willing and able’ to purchase their property and agreed to pay the agents a commission upon them introducing such a person. The agents found a prospective purchaser but he . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract, Agency
Updated: 10 January 2022; Ref: scu.377316