275 Mass. 528 | Mass. | 1931
An enforceable contract between a real estate broker and his employer comes into existence when an agreement for employment is made between them and a consideration is paid; or. when an offer of employment is accepted by complete fulfilment of the terms of the offer on the part of the broker. The law requires as requisite to recovery that the broker either perform fully what he has been hired to do where a binding contract on present consideration has been made, or that he be the efficient cause of a completed sale when the contract is the outcome of an offer and acceptance by service. A liability to pay the broker’s commission may also exist in consequence of unethical conduct of the employer which results in preventing full performance by the broker although the benefit which the employer sought from the broker’s exertion is obtained by him. Elliott v. Kazajian, 255 Mass. 459, and cases there cited.
In the case before us there is no evidence to support a finding of a binding contract upon a present consideration, nor of unethical conduct of the employer. The broker’s right to recover turns upon whether the evidence, as matter of law, will support a finding that he was the efficient cause of a completed sale. The evidence taken most strongly in his favor would support findings as follows: The plaintiff,
The mere fact that the ultimate purchasers were persons first interested in the owners’ land by the plaintiff is not controlling. Ward v. Fletcher, 124 Mass. 224. Smith v. Kimball, 193 Mass. 582. Whitcomb v. Bacon, 170 Mass. 479. If they absolutely abandoned the original purpose to negotiate for the land and in good faith no longer dealt with the plaintiff but took up the matter afresh with another broker as an independent negotiation, the plaintiff, as matter of law, was not the efficient cause of the completed sale. Nichols v. Atherton, 250 Mass. 215. Delaney v. Doyle, 267 Mass. 171. The evidence does not go far enough to warrant finding the plaintiff to have been the efficient cause of the sale. The defendants’ motion for a directed verdict in their favor should, therefore, have been granted. The ex
Judgment for the defendants.