155 N.W. 65 | N.D. | 1915
This action is by real estate brokers to recover damages for defendant’s breach of contract in refusing to convey to a third person a section of land belonging to defendant, and for which plaintiffs had, at his solicitation, secured said third person as a purchaser, and who had agreed with defendant to buy. The plaintiffs’ damages arise from defendant preventing their securing commissions from the purchaser by breaching the contract. A general demurrer was interposed
It is alleged that plaintiffs are real estate brokers engaged in buying and selling real property on commission for others “to the knowledge of the defendant.” That defendant was the owner of said section of land. “That on and prior to the said 21st.day of September, 1906, the defendant had employed the plaintiffs to sell such real property, and had directed and authorized them to offer for sale and to sell the same for, and at the price of, $15 per acre net to him, and that on or about said date they offered the same to one Julius C. Kunze, then of the town of Lewis, and state of Iowa, at and for the price of $17 per acre; and that the said Julius C. Kunze then and there offered to buy the same at said price, upon the terms and conditions of a payment of $1,780, down, of which $1,280 was the plaintiffs’ profit and commissions and as to the net price to the defendant and terms of payment thereof, as follows, viz.: $500 cash on delivery by the defendant of a contract for a warranty deed conveying the land free from all encumbrances whatsoever when the terms of the contract are complied with by such purchaser,-— such purchaser to pay an additional $1,300 on or before the 1st day of March, 1907, and the balance of the purchase price to be paid in six equal annual payments, with interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum, payable annually, — the defendant to furnish an abstract showing perfect title continued to date; when purchaser has paid one fourth of the purchase price, defendant to give him a warranty deed and take back a mortage for the unpaid balance due on the purchase price,— the purchaser to have the privilege of paying at or before maturity. That said Julius Kunze was then and there able, ready, and willing and ever since said time has been able, willing, and ready to carry out and perform said offer; and that thereupon on the said day the plaintiffs submitted said offer to the defendant, in writing, and that thereupon, to wit, the 24th day of September, 1906, the defendant accepted-such offer in writing and thereby entered in a contract for the sale of such property for and at the price of $15 per acre net to him.” That de-; fendant refused to “carry out said agreement for the sale and conveyance of such real property,” and still refuses to do so, of which he has notified plaintiffs, who demanded that he comply with his contract; Then follows the allegation of damage, “that by reason of the premises
Those brokers were not the agents, strictly speaking, of defendant to sell, but only to procure a purchaser. Hayes v. McAra, 35 L.R.A. (N.S.) 116, and note (166 Mich. 198, 131 N. W. 535) ; Fulton v. Cretian, 17 N. D. 335, 117 N. W. 344, distinguishing this action in principle from those similar to Ballou v. Bergvendsen, 9 N. D. 285, 83 N. W. 10. See also Brandrup v. Britten, 11 N. D. 376, 92 N. W. 453, and Larson v. O’Hara, 8 Ann. Cas. 849, and note (98 Minn. 71, 116 Am. St. Rep. 342, 107 N. W. 821). But if considered defendant’s brokers, they may have an interest antagonistic to him, arising out of
It is true that, as stated in 19 Cyc. 301, “as a rule a contract negotiated by a broker in behalf of a principal cannot found a right of action in favor of the broker against the other contracting party.” However, there is an exception supporting a recovery under circumstances similar to those in suit. See Livermore v. Crane, 26 Wash. 529, 67 Pac. 221, 57 L.R.A. 401, the syllabus reading: “Refusal to comply with a contract to purchase real estate by reason of which the broker who negotiated the sale is deprived of his commissions, will render the intending purchaser liable for the damages thereby inflicted on the broker, although he had agreed to looh to the seller for his commissions.” This case cites Cavender v. Waddingham, 2 Mo. App. 551, and Atkinson v. Pack, 114 N. C. 597, 19 S. E. 628. This last case is identical in facts with the one at bar. The following is from the opinion in Livermore v. Crane, viz.: “The second case mentioned is Atkinson v. Pack, supra, where it was in effect determined that a real estate broker negotiating a sale of land for a person who agreed with him in writing to convey it to the intending purchaser from whom he was to receive his commission may maintain an action for breach of contract upon refusal of such person to convey, upon showing that the purchaser was ready to take and pay therefor. It was said in this case: ‘There were plainly two contracts made by plaintiffs, — the one with defendant, the effect of which was that plaintiffs would provide a purchaser of the land at the agreed price, commissions to be paid by the purchaser; the other with the purchaser, that he would pay the plaintiffs’ commissions upon the conclusion of the sale. If, through the negotiation of plaintiffs, the parties had been brought together and had concluded the trade between them, the plaintiffs would have been entitled to their commissions from . . . the purchaser according to the terms of their contract. But this action is for damages. The gravamen of the charge is that defendant committed the wrong and injury upon plaintiffs by a refusal without cause to comply with his contract with plaintiffs to sell the land to plaintiffs’ principal, with the distinct understanding that plaintiffs were to be compensated by the purchaser. The natural effect and consequence of this refusal by defendant was the loss by plaintiffs of their commissions.’ It would seem to he immaterial whether in the original negotiation or
Defendant answered, alleging “the fact to be that on or about the month of September, 1906, plaintiffs wrote defendant, stating that they could get $15 per acre net to this defendant for said land” on terms identical with those pleaded in the complaint as Kunze’s offer, except reference to the $1,280 therein mentioned as plaintiffs’ profit and commissions or any reference to $17 per acre as the purchase price. The answer continues: “That thereafter in September, 1906, defendant informed plaintiffs that he would be willing to accept such offer; that thereafter neither this plaintiff nor anyone else attempted or offered to carry out' the terms of said offer; but on the contrary plaintiffs continually made and suggested modifications of said offer to this defendant, which wex*e not accepted by hixn. Further answering, defendant alleges that neither the plaintiffs nor anyoxxe else ever coxnplied with the' coxxditioxxs of said offer*, although often requested to do so by this defendant.” All other matter’s in the complaint were denied.
Thus the fact that an offer was made by Kunze thx*ough plaintiffs to defendant staxxds admitted, but the answer denies its acceptance by defendant as made. The issues tendered for proof under the pleadings resolved simply to the terms of the offer as to commissions, and whether defendant violated the agreement to transfer. Findings were filed supporting all matters contained in the complaint and judgment entered thereon for $1,895.25 damages.
Previous to May 15, 1906, defendant had quoted plaintiffs a selling price on said land. On that date he writes them: “I would not want to divide section 21. Please change the price to 15 per acre net to me, one- fourth cash balance easy at 6 per cent.” Plaintiffs showed Kunze this land on September 7th and offered it to him at $17 per acre. Next day they wrote defendant: “We showed the land to an Iowa man
This letter was not replied to, presumably because defendant was a traveling man and away from home. So, on September 21, 1906, plaintiffs wrote him a duplicate of their first letter, against asking him to “wire us if you accept the offer.”
Defendant replied by telegram on September 24th: “I accept your proposition of fifteen net to me,” and followed it with a letter reading: “I inclose you abstract to section 21. If you will kindly turn over to Mr. Byrne and have him bring this down to date, I will mail him a check. If your man is ready can see no reason why you can’t close this deal this week.” This was in reply to the following under date of September 29th from plaintiffs to defendant: “The First National Bank of this city notified us to-day that there was deposited with them $250 earnest money to be applied on the purchase price of section 21. Please send the abstract to Mr. Byrne, of this city, the official abstracter, to be continued to date and then delivered to us for examination. We will forward it to the purchaser for his examination. The purchaser is ready to pay his first payment as soon as his attorney pronounces the title all right. Please attend to the sending of the abstract on receipt of this letter, as we wish to close this sale as rapidly as possible.” Upon receipt of defendant’s reply above set forth, they wrote him October 3d: “Your letter inclosing the abstract was this day received. We took it to the abstracter to have it continued to date, and expect to get it tomorrow. As soon as we get it from Byrne, we will send it to the purchaser as he wishes his attorney to pass on the title.” Apparent defects in the title are mentioned. October 4th, plaintiffs wrote defendant stating at length some half dozen defects in record title as appeared from the completed abstract. One of these arose because a grantor
Assignments of error taken to tbe reception of evidence, tbe denial of defendant’s motion to dismiss made at tbe close of tbe case, and exception to tbe findings, are all covered by tbe foregoing discussion.
Tbe assignment based upon tbe overruling of defendant’s objection to all testimony because tbe complaint did not state a cause of action, a demurrer ore teñios, was disposed of when it was held that tbe complaint was not subject to demurrer.
Tbe many exceptions to tbe findings are likewise not well taken because tbe findings are but the equivalent of a restatement of tbe allegations of tbe complaint. They must, therefore, be held sufficient to support a judgment.
Defendant claims that there is no proof of plaintiffs’ employment by him. The proof is sufficient to show an employment to find a purchaser and to establish that plaintiffs were virtually go-betweens as to' both parties, with tbe full understanding and acquiescence of both. Defendant’s letters refusing to convey recognize a liability of defendant to them under an employment. He offers to compensate them for moneys he has caused them to expend in perfecting bis title, and promises that next year he will give them tbe exclusive sale of this land. His last letter in January, 1907, desires them to clear title. There is sufficient evidence to sustain the finding of employment if it be considered that an employment is necessary. Tbe findings- have tbe force of a verdict.
Defendant seeks to apply to the findings tbe rule announced in I-ouva v. Worden, and states that defendant never agreed to give tbe $2 per acre excess as commissions. Plaintiffs’ recovery does not stand upon that hypothesis. Nor do the findings for reasons heretofore discussed at length.
Appellant says there is no evidence that Kunze’s offer to plaintiffs was ever submitted to defendant, and that “the offer submitted must have been the identical offer received hy plaintiffs or there could have been no acceptance.” This rule of law has no application under the facts. The seller accepted the offer communicated, agreeing to receive in full of the purchase price $15 per acre net to him, and treating-buyer as plaintiffs’ purchaser. In his letter of October 1, he says: “If your man is ready, can see no reason why you can’t close this deal this week.” In his telegram of acceptance he says, “I accept yonr proposition of fifteen net to me.” In his letter of November 3d, he says: “It looks to me like a clear case of sparring for time on the part of your customer.” In his letter of January 18, 1907, he says, as an excuse for violating his contract and to escape liability, “I want to give you the exclusive sale of this land for 1907.” It would appear that defendant assumed he did not have the land listed exclusively with plaintiffs even at the time when plaintiffs were selling it. Defendant’s liability is fixed by the offer that he accepted and the resulting contract, it not being vitiated by fraud or bad faith on the part of the plaintiffs. Nothing of that kind is pleaded. While defendant was under obligation to convey he was under no contract liability for commissions, except as it is incidental to the breach of his contract with both Kunze and plaintiffs.
Assignments are based upon the denial of the motion to dismiss as well as upon the finding's wherein appellant erroneously assumes that an obligation rested upon Kunze to pay $500 cash when defendant accepted
Appellants contend that under the construction of the word “net”' in Louva v. Worden, 30 N. D. 401, 152 N. W. 689, the measure of damages would be the reasonable value of the plaintiffs’ services rendered, and that no evidence was offered thereof, but instead a recovery was had upon the theory of a right to recover the $2 per acre excess as, upon contract. The plaintiffs’ measure of damages is not determined by the terms of plaintiffs’ contract with defendant, if any there be. Instead his recovery is for damages resulting from defendant’s breach of the contract with Kunze. Defendant had agreed with plaintiffs to convey to their customer upon the terms and with knowledge that plaintiffs were receiving a profit as go-betweens for consummating the purchase and sale. The meaning of the word “net” is-in nowise involved except as it might limit the purchase price defendant was to receive. The measure of damages must be the profit coming to them from Kunze. That defendant did not know its exact amount is immaterial, inasmuch as he knew or had reason to believe commissions would be due plaintiffs from Kunze, and he was not misled. Plaintiffs did not endeavor to conceal anything from him. Before breaching his contract he could have ascertained any resulting damages. He knew they were getting their commissions from Kunze and had accepted the offer to convey to Kunze with knowledge of and upon that condition. No one would contend (under the proposition made by letter by plaintiffs to defendant and accepted by him as the basis for subsequent dealing) otherwise than that plaintiffs would look elsewhere than to defendant for their profits. Had the deal been consummated and the purchase effected at $15 per acre as between the seller and the purchaser with no $2 per acre margin, and were the plaintiffs here suing for the reasonable value of their services, defendant could urge as a complete defense that the price he was to receive was net to him with the plaintiffs to obtain payment for their services from the purchaser; and could cite excerpts from all his letters emphasizing the truth of his contention. Every communication, from the telegraphic acceptance to the close of correspondence, from
It has been stated that it was immaterial that defendant did not know plaintiffs were to receive from Kunze $2 per acre as their profits. The damages recoverable are controlled by the common-law rule for breach of contract, codified in § 7146, Comp. Laws 1913. They are “the amount which will compensate the party aggrieved for all detriment caused thereby, or which in the ordinary course of things would be likely to result therefrom.” The question next arises as to whether the full amount of the commission must have been in the contemplation of the parties when defendant agreed to convey to plaintiffs’ purchaser. Many different common-law rules apply according to the class of property and the circumstances. Where the parties contract with reference to personal property having a market price, they contract with reference to market price in case of breach of contract, and the market price usually limits the recovery. Where the property has no market price, recovery usually may he had of all reasonable damages actually sustained. But, where property is purchased with knowledge had by the vendor that the vendee intends to resell it to fulfil a contract of sale already made, the vendor will be held to contract with reference to the profits, whether known or unknown, that his purchaser may make from reselling to the subpurchaser, and damages equivalent to such a profit may be recovered of the vendor where he defaults in fulfilling his obligation. Such a contract is analogous to the one at har. The contract to convey was made with reference to and included the collateral contract that would ai-ise simultaneously between plaintiffs and their purchaser’, and under which, to defendant’s knowledge, plaintiffs would make their profits for the entire transaction. This must be held to have been within defendant’s contemplation when he contracted with reference thereto. And also when he breached the contract by l’efusal to convey inferentially at least mala fides. 8 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law,
Distinctions are drawn by the authorities as to the good faith of the vendor in entering into and in breaching the contract; and the prevailing rule is that when the vendor acts mala fides the rule of damages applicable to torts is applied as the measure of damages resulting from breach of the contract. And the vendor is held in damages for the full loss of profits that would have accrued to the injured party from his bargain but for the breach of contract by the vendor. Notes in 52 L.R.A. 242 and 16 L.R.A. (N.S.) 771, citing much authority. And this case at bar is clearly within the mala fides rule, as stated. Defendant capriciously, arbitrarily, and entirely without justification, refused to either convey or permit plaintiffs to perfect his title at their expense by an action for that purpose, as they offered to do to enable him to convey to a willing purchaser, ready to wait until title could be perfected and the transfer made. Not only that, but soon after thus breaching his contract, and apparently to quiet plaintiffs he assures them that he will allow them the exclusive sale of said land for the coming year, and then secretly attempts to resell independently of plaintiffs, to the very person with whom he had a short time before been dealing through plaintiffs ; whom he knew was plaintiffs’ customer, and whose name and address he procured from them, and because of which former deal through them he knew was an able and satisfactory purchaser, because he had in the first deal accepted him as such. This is proved by defendant’s letters and from his own cross-examination. This is ample to warrant a finding that he refused, to convey in order to pz*event plaintiffs from realizing their profits on a deal all but consummated, and that defendant attempted thereby to secure their profits himself by selling direct to plaintiffs’ customer pz’esumably for $17 per acre, the full price such
Plaintiffs raise many objections to the sufficiency of the contract of sale. The evidence shows the contract to have been reduced to writing and identical with the accepted offer to defendant and was transmitted through plaintiffs to Kunze for his signature and was approved and accepted in terms by him, he writing that “will return them properly signed upon receipt of abstract, showing that the title is good.” Every •detail was thus made definite. This establishes Kunze was prima facie ready and willing to purchase. Flynn v. Jordal, 124 Iowa, 457, 100 N. W. 326. The reason why the sale was not consummated was nothing of that kind, but was solely because of the condition of the record title. As to this it will not be presumed that “Krups” and “Krepps” are one and the same person, in the absence of proof under the reasoning of the recent holding of Turk v. Benson, 30 N. D. 200, L.R.A.1915D, 1211, 152 N. W. 354. And under Bruegger v. Cartier, 29 N. D. 575, 151 N. W. 34, and note in 38 L.R.A.(N.S.) 3, the title proffered was not a marketable one. Kunze had a right to refuse acceptance of such title. Judgment is ordered affirmed.
(after rehearing had). As stated in the foregoing opinion, this case subdivides into (1) discussion of the sufficiency of the complaint under the demurrer, and (2) alleged errors of law at the trial. The first half of the main opinion was devoted to the first question. The second will now be more fully treated.
Upon the trial there is found a departure from the theory upon which the issue was tendered in the pleadings.
Trial was had upon the theory, entertained by both the counsel and the court, that the proof was sufficient to establish an implied contract that the $2 per acre excess in selling price over the “net” price to defendant was commissions to the brokers for procuring a purchaser. The sufficiency of the evidence to establish this contract, whether it he termed an express or implied contract, according to the construction placed upon the letters and defendant’s acceptance, never occurred to either of the parties to challenge for a moment until new counsel
However, it may be remarked in passing that Louva v. Worden, announces no doctrine necessarily controlling to effect a dismissal of this case. This is a law action for damages and a law appeal' presenting a review of error only. If the evidence be sufficient, under the voluminous correspondence and the written acceptances by defendant of the terms of sale proposed by plaintiffs to him, to have taken to the jury the question of fact of whether it was understood between the parties that plaintiffs’ commissions should come from Kunze, and not from -de
Exception is taken to our findings in the main opinion that Kunze’s name and address was procured by defendant from plaintiffs. The evidence fully justifies that finding. Defendant testifies that prior to negotiations he did not know of Kunze, and that he “never saw him.” That defendant was a traveling salesman, with Iowa his field for work. The correspondence gives Kunze’s name and his residence as in Iowa. In their first letter, plaintiffs stated they had showed defendant’s land “to an Io-sya 'man yesterday.” Again, in their letter to defendant of October 3d they stated, “As he lives in Iowa this must take about a week before we can get the opinion of his attorney.” In their letter of November 14th to defendant plaintiffs state, “Mr. Kunze, the purchaser, is ready to pay the balance of the first payment to you whenever the title is clear.” This is reiterated in their letter to him of November 21st. And defendant himself writes to Kunze in February following his refusal in November to transfer title to him.
Defendant testifies:
Q. Did you not write to Kunze in the month of February, 1907, asking him why the deal with Harvey Harris & Company was not closed ?
A. Yes, I wrote him, but I don’t remember what I wrote him.
Q. To that effect, was it not ?
A. I think it was.
Q. Did you not write him asking him, if the title is clear so your áttorney would consider it good, will you then he willing to close the deal ?
A. I may have done it.
Nor can he, under the issues tendered and the proof made, question Kunze’s ability to pay. Dotson v. Milliken, 209 U. S. 237, 52 L. ed. 768, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 489, an analogous case for real estate commissions earned by finding of a purchaser. The syllabus directly applicable reads: “The inability of the prospective purchaser to complete the purchase is not available as an afterthought to defeat the right of the broker employed to find a purchaser to recover his agreed commissions,
But the proof discloses that half the initial payment had been on deposit in the bank since the first week of negotiations, and that Kunze was ready to forward the balance with the signed contract at any time that the admitted defects in record title were cured. Munson v. McGregor, 49 Wash. 276, 94 Pac. 1085. Defendant’s letters admit that his record title is defective. Hnder the authorities it was not a merchantable title. The burden was upon him to make it one. Instead,