71 Mo. App. 524 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1897
This action is to recover $100 alleged to be due plaintiffs as real estate agents for procuring an exchange of lands for defendant with W. W. Davis. • The judgment of the circuit court was for defendant. The evidence showed that defendant employed plaintiffs about the middle of February to make the exchange and that plaintiff Austin, perhaps on the day of the employment, brought the parties together. That negotiations began then and continued with plaintiffs’ aid until the first of March.' That then they ceased for a time when, they were taken up by the parties themselves and continued a few days when the trade was made, about the middle of April, on substantially the same terms originally offered while plaintiffs were conducting, or aiding in, the négotiations.
There was evidence tending to show that the contract was limited with plaintiffs in point of time to the first day of March and that at that time plaintiffs gave up hope of making the trade and declared their agency in the matter at an end. Under this state of the evidence the court gave the following instructions of its own motion:
“If the jury believes from the evidence that W. W. Davis was brought to a negotiation with defendant while plaintiffs were the agents of defendant in relatiou to the sale or exchange of defendant’s land from information given by plaintiff to W. W. Davis and defendant which resulted in the sale or exchange of the property of defendant they will find for the plaintiffs unless they further find that by agreement Austin was to complete the exchange before the first day of March, 1895.
“2. The court instructs the jury that if the do
”3. The court instructs the jury that if they believe from the evidence that plaintiffs while acting as the agents of the defendant procured a purchaser for the sale or exchange of defendant’s land and that said purchaser was procured while their agency was still in force and negotiations were kept up with said purchaser and the negotiations resulted in a sale or exchange, then they will find for the plaintiffs, although they may believe that the plaintiffs’ agency expired before the sale or exchange was finally closed, provided they further find that the time for the consummation of said exchange was not limited to the first day of March aforesaid.”
We discover no error in the court’s action on plaintiffs’ instructions and finding nothing to justify us in interfering with the judgment, we order its affirmance.