133 Iowa 647 | Iowa | 1907
Plaintiff’s cause of action was stated in two counts, in the first of which he alleged employment by the defendant under an oral contract to sell certain described
The claim of plaintiff in his petition, and as a witness, was that he had effected a sale, and had thereupon become entitled to a commission, and the material questions raised by the pleadings and submitted by the court to the jury for determination under the evidence, which was in conflict, were whether the defendant had authorized the plaintiff as his agent to sell the property, and whether any such sale as plaintiff was authorized to make had been effected. There was no evidence as
The court instructed the jury that plaintiff must show that he did effect a sale of the property for $16,000 according to the terms of the contract, but the jury were not instructed that authority to sell for $16,000 did not authorize plaintiff to enter into a contract of sale requiring defendant to furnish an abstract of title. The jury were further instructed that if defendant entered into a contract by the terms of which he authorized plaintiff to sell the property at a price named, and if plaintiff did enter into a contract for the sale of said property to a person who was ready, able, and willing to pay therefor according to said contract, that ,was all he was required to do. We think that these instructions were erroneous. Under them the plaintiff would have been entitled to his commission on contracting for a sale at the price of $16,000 on any terms and conditions which plaintiff
Other errors are relied upon in the brief for appellant, but, as we have not been favored with an argument for appellee, we do not feel justified in going into the case further than to decide whether the j udgment of the trial court can be sustained.
Finding that in the réspect pointed out the claims of plaintiff are not supported, by the evidence, and also that the questions involved were not correctly submitted +o the jury, we reach the conclusion that the judgment of the trial court must be reversed.