144 N.Y.S. 593 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1913
Action by a broker to recover commissions for procuring a lease of real estate. The execution of - the lease by defendants was admitted and the only question litigated at the trial was whether plaintiff were the procuring cause.
Sometime in September, 1912, plaintiff exhibited the premises in question to oneVoight, who was the manager and secretary of Renault Freres Selling Branch, Inc., a domestic corporation, which was the New York representative of a company doing business in Paris, France. Shortly thereafter the plain
It seems another broker, the Cross & Brown Company, some time prior to September, 1912, obtained from the defendants information in regard to the property with a view of trying to rent the same, and in November it learned that Renault Freres Selling Branch, Inc., might possibly take a lease thereof. Brown, the vice-president of the Cross & Brown Company, while in Paris opened negotiations with the Paris concern looking towards the leasing of the premises to the Renault Freres Selling Branch, Inc., and after interviews covering several days he succeeded in leasing the premises to it for a term of ten years at an annual rental of $18,000, with privilege of renewal for ten years more at $25,000 per year. The lease was executed on December 12, 1912, and the defendants paid the Cross & Brown Company the regular broker’s commission for procuring the lease.
The verdict is not sustained by the evidence. All that plaintiff did was to call the attention of Voight to the premises and submit an offer to make a lease, which was rejected, and to submit an offer made by defendants, which was never accepted. Cross & Brown, the brokers, who in fact procured the lease to be executed, did not learn of the property or of the prospective customer through the plaintiff. The negotiations, which finally resulted in a lease being made, were carried on by Brown in Paris, of which the plaintiff had no knowledge. The fact that the plaintiff may have been the first to call the lessee’s attention to the property is of no importance, because it was not through his efforts that the lease was made. In order to entitle plaintiff to commissions it must have been through his efforts that a lease was procured. (Meyer v. Improved Property Holding Co., 137 App. Div. 691.) A broker is not entitled to commissions unless he succeeds in doing what his customer has intrusted to him. (Sibbald v. Bethlehem Iron Co., 83 N. Y. 378.) Cross & Brown did succeed, and they thereupon became entitled to their commissions, which were paid. Plaintiff did not succeed, and, therefore, was not entitled to anything.
The determination of the Appellate Term is reversed and the judgment and order of the City Court also reversed and a new trial ordered, with costs in all courts to appellants to abide event.
Ingraham, P. J., Laughlin, Clarke and Scott, JJ., concurred.
Determination and judgment reversed and new trial ordered, with costs to appellants in all courts to abide event. Order to be settled on notice.