37 Minn. 6 | Minn. | 1887
The plaintiff owned a lot of land in Minneapolis. One Creigh was a real-estate broker, and at his request she employed and authorized him to sell the lot to any one who would purchase it at such sum as would net her $1,050; Creigh to receive as his compensation whatever he could get for the lot in excess of $1,050. At the time of such employing, he (believing it to be true) represented
The decision of the court below proceeds on the propositions— First, that it was the duty of Creigh, upon learning of the buildings being upon the lot, to communicate that fact to plaintiff, and that by selling the lot without disclosing that fact, at a pric'e which he knew she had put upon it in ignorance of that fact, he committed a fraud upon her; and, second, that defendant, by purchasing with notice of Creigh’s fraud, became a party to it. If the first proposition be correct, the second follows as a necessary consequence.
The case turns upon whether it was the duty of Creigh, before making a sale, to disclose what he had learned to his principal. Upon this contract of agency, my brethren are of opinion (though ills, not mine) that when Creigh learned a fact affecting the value of the property, and of which fact he knew she was ignorant when she fixed the price, and if he had reason to believe that, had she known the fact, she would have fixed a higher price, (as in this case she undoubtedly would,) then good faith towards his principal required of him, and it was his legal duty, to disclose the fact to her before he proceeded to sell, so that she might, if so disposed, fix the selling price in accordance with the actual condition of things. This being so, his selling
The tender was sufficient. Defendant and Creigh were parties to the fraud on plaintiff, by which Creigh, one of the parties, received (in effect) from defendant, the other party to it, $100. No consideration of equity or morality would require of plaintiff to make that good either to Creigh or defendant. All that can be required of her as a condition of her repudiating the transaction imposed on her by the fraud of Creigh and defendant is to restore what (in ignorance of the facts) she received in the transaction.
Judgment affirmed.