227 Pa. 224 | Pa. | 1910
February 14, 1910:
The assignments of error raise this question: Can a real estate broker, regularly assessed a license tax, recover a commission fixed by specific contract, for the sale of land, when the sale takes place in June and the tax is not paid or the license issued until August of the same year?
Under the established rule in Pennsylvania, a real estate broker cannot have the aid of the courts to recover commissions which were earned before he had paid his tax and received a license; and the fact that he sues on a special contract will not help him. This rule rests upon the theory that since the law prohibits under a penalty the doing of business by unlicensed brokers, contracts providing for the payment of commissions to such persons are opposed to good morals and public policy and cannot be enforced: Johnson v. Hulings, 103 Pa. 498.
The Act of May 27, 1841, P. L. 396, provides, upon the payment of certain fixed fees, for the commissioning or licensing of stockbrokers “for the term of one year from the date of such commission,” with a provision for the issuing of a new commission “for each succeeding year.” Section 5 provides: “No individual or corporation, other than those duly commissioned under the provisions of this act, shall use or exercise the business or occupation of a stockbroker, etc., under a penalty of five hundred dollars for each and every offense,” etc. Section 18, Act of April 10, 1849, P. L. 570, extends this act to real estate brokers.
It is contended by the appellants that the rule should be modified, for the reason that subsequent legislation has so changed the law that at the present time the license tax to be paid by a real estate broker depends upon the amount of business done by him in each particular year; and that this cannot be ascertained until the end of the year in which the business is transacted.
Section 7, Act of May 15, 1850, P. L. 772, provides: “Hereafter all real estate brokers shall be required to pay annually for their respective commissions or licenses granted in pursuance of the several acts of assembly now in force relating
Subsequent compliance with the law will not cure the illegality of previous transactions: Chicago Building & Manufacturing Company v. Myton, 24 Pa. Superior Ct. 16; Delaware River Quarry, etc., Company v. Bethlehem & Nazareth P. Ry. Company, 204 Pa. 22.
As the appellant had not paid his tax or secured his license! at the time he earned the commissions sued for, he was using and exercising the business of a real estate broker against the plain mandate of the law, and cannot recover.
The assignments of error are overruled and the judgment of the court below is affirmed.