83 Mass. 494 | Mass. | 1861
The principle on which rests the well settled' doctrine, that a man cannot become the purchaser of property for his own use and benefit which is intrusted to him to sell, is equally applicable when the same person, without the authority or consent of the parties interested, undertakes to act as the agent of both vendor and purchaser. The law does not allow a man to assume relations so essentially inconsistent and repugnant to each other. The duty of an agent for a vendor is to sell the property at the highest price; of the agent of the purchaser to buy it for the lowest. These duties are so utterly irreconcilable and conflicting that they cannot be performed by the same person without great danger that the rights of one principal will be sacrificed to promote the interests of the other, or that neither of them will enjoy the benefit of a discreet and faithful exercise of the trust reposed in the agent. As it can
Such being the well settled rule of law, it follows that the evidence offered by the plaintiff was inadmissible. A custom or usage to be legal and valid must be reasonable and consistent with good morals and sound policy, so that parties may be supposed to have made their contracts with reference to it. If such a usage is shown to exist, then it becomes the law by which the rights of the parties are to be regulated and governed. But the usage on which the plaintiff relied was wanting in these essential elements. It would be unreasonable, because, if established, it would operate to prevent the faithful fulfilment of the contract of agency. It would be contrary to good morals and sound policy, because it would tend to sanction an unwarrantable concealment of facts essential to a contract, and operate as a fraud on parties who had a right to rely on the confidence reposed in their agents. Exceptions overruled.