159 Iowa 45 | Iowa | 1913
The petition alleges that defendant, being the owner of a stock of goods which he desired to dispose of, requested and authorized plaintiff to find a purchaser therefor, and agreed to pay a reasonable compensation .for services so rendered. It is further alleged that plaintiff, acting under said authority, did in fact find and send to defendant a purchaser to whom a sale was effected, and that plaintiff thereby became entitled to receive from defendant a commission of $462.50, no part of which has been paid. The defendant, answering the claim, denies that he ever requested or employed the plaintiff to find a purchaser for the goods, and denies that plaintiff did find or produce the purchaser to whom the sale was made or that he was, in any manner, instrumental in making the same. It will be seen from this statement that the issues turn upon two questions of fact: Did the defendant request or authorize the plaintiff to find and produce a purchaser for the stock of goods ? Did the plaintiff find and produce 'to the defendant the customer to whom the sale was made?
That defendant did authorize plaintiff to find him a purchaser is sworn to unequivocally by the plaintiff. In this statement he is corroborated by the testimony of his wife and by other testimony of defendant’s alleged statements and admissions. This testimony is denied by defendant, who questions its credibility and reasonableness, but of these matters the trial court was the sole judge, and it must be taken by us as established that defendant constituted plaintiff his agent to find and produce a buyer for the property.
Appellant insists as a proposition of law that where the purchaser produced by an agent or broker is not able, ready, and willing to buy the property, and thereafter a partnership is formed between such customer and another person, to which a sale is subsequently made without the intervention of such agent or broker, no right to a commission is thereby created.’ The proposition as’thus stated may be admitted, but the case at bar does not fall within the rule. It is the theory of plaintiff’s case, and there is evidence to the effect, that when the name of John Cohen, as a prospective purchaser, was discussed between the parties, his inability to pay the entire pur
We find no error in the record. The testimony fairly supports the judgment appealed from, and it is therefore Affirmed.'