124 Iowa 98 | Iowa | 1904
Plaintiff is a real estate agent doing bnsiness at Waterloo. Defendants were the owners jointly of a tract of land consisting of forty-six and eighty-four hundredths acres lying along the Cedar river and near the limits of that city. In February, 1898, the defendant Jessie L. Ilogle, who resides in Oakland, Cal., acting for herself and her co-owners, wrote plaintiff requesting him to try and sell said tract of land at the cash price of 'fifty-four dollárs per acre and offering to pay a commission of 5 per cent. Plaintiff responded by a letter accepting' the agency, and inquiring among other things whether defendants had an abstract of title or proposed to furnish one. Mrs. Hogle replied, saying simply, “ I see no necessity for sending an, abstract until the sale is made.” In May, 1898, plaintiff wrote to Mrs. Hogle saying, in substance, that the land was sold upon certain conditions respecting the title and an abstract thereof; also as to shrinkage in the acreage caused by the washing of the river. To this Mrs. Hogle at once replied insisting upon there being forty-six and eighty-four hundredths acres of land and refusing to allow for any shrinkage. She says further that if the customer desired to purchase “ have the First National Bank of Waterloo notify me when he' has deposited the amount in full for us and I will send the survey and deed, also pay your five per cent commission.” The proposed customer, E. B. Smith, refused to make the purchase at the time, and nothing further' occurred until April, 1899, when plaintiff again met Smith and the latter agreed to take the land at the price' designated, an abstract of title to be furnished. Thereupon plaintiff wrote Mrs. Hogle that the land was sold, and requested that the abstract be sent at once. With this letter he inclosed a printed form of deed, the blanks left unfilled save that a description of the lands by metes and bounds, typewritten upon a separate slip, was pasted on the blank at the place'where the description was intended to be inserted. Further in the letter plaintiff explains that this was done by him to make certain that the
The facts as contained in the foregoing statement are established by the record without substantial conflict, and therefrom the rights of the parties must be determined. First, as to the matters alleged in the first count of the petition. Without doubt, we must look to-the correspondence for the authority of plaintiff to act in the premises. The subject may be summed up by saying that the letter written in February, 1898, authorized him. to find a cash purchaser at fifty-four dollars per acre. The letter of May, 1898, made the further condition that the purchase price in full should he de
The verdict for defendants was properly directed as to the matter alleged in the second count of the petition, and this for the reason that it cannot he said from the record that plaintiff was ever given authority to contract on behalf of defendants the indebtedness incurred by him, the amount of which he now seeks to recover.
Our conclusion, drawn from the whole record, is that the judgment of the trial court was right, and it is affirmed.