CLAIM FOR COMMISSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16096, 9 December 1915, Page 7

CLAIM FOR COMMISSION.

A PROPERTY DEAL.

DECISION RESERVED.

A claim for commission on the sale of a farm property was heard before Mr. .E. C. Cutten, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning. Mrs. Ada Elizabeth Goodson (Mr. R. E. Taylor), trading as the Express Land Agency, sought to recover from Ernest Albert Sheldon (Mr. A. Hanna) a sum of £101 13s, alleged to be commission due in respect of the sale of a farm at Tuakau from £h« defendant to Ambrose and Clara Harker, for a sum of £4066. Evidence was given by plaintiff in regard to the matter of the property having been placed in her hands for disposal, and to her having introduced the parties. She said the defendant had told her that if she would . accept £60 as the amount of her commission he would sell another farm through her alone, so that she would receive another commission. He had staged further that he % could raise a mortgage on the property, and let Harker have a sum of £200 with which to stock the farm. Witness had agreed to accept the sum of £60 as commission, on the condition suggested. The condition had not been fulfilled, however. The defendant had later advertised that his other farm at Takanini—the one he had promised to sell through her agency—had been sold, and she had never had an opportunity to sell the farm. She had received no commission out of the sale of the Tuakau property, neither had Harker got any cash from Sheldon, with which to purchase stock. She had received no payment, either from Sheldon or Harker. In answer to Mr. Haima witness said that a man named James Smith was associate! with her i n selling properties, but Smith was not authorised to make arrangements regarding commissions. James Smith, farmer, residing at Eunciman, also gave evidence. Ambrose Harker, farmer, living at Tuakau, said he had purchased his present property from the defendant, Sheldon. He had been promised by Sheldon a sum of £200 to stock the Tuakau farm, but he had never received that through Sheldon. He had had to make other arrangements to get the money. William John Alexander Thompson, accountant and secretary to a land agency association, gave formal evidence as to the rate? of commissions generally charged. For the defence, it was submitted by Mr. Hanna that the plaintiff must be nonsuited because there to no written authority, as required by the Land -Agents ' Act, to enable her to make a claim for \ commission. A certain agreement had been produced, but the sale had been made on terms not contemplated bv the parties when that agreement was drawn up. The plaintiff must show that she had been given authority to effect a sale in the precise manner and on the precise terms in which and on which the sale had been made. If a great variation had been made by the plaintiff in the terms of the sale, then the authority of the principal should have been secured in order to entitle her to recover commission. The defendant was perfectly willing to pay commission, hut he submitted that the amount should not exceed £60.

Ernest Albert Sheldon, the defendant, said there were no conditions contingent upon making a reduction of the commission to be paid to plaintiff. He had never promised to finance Harker to the extent of £200.

Other evidence for the defence was given by Henry Cooper, a taxicab-driver, who had overheard a conversation in regard to the sale, and by Charles Henry Sheldon, brother of the defendant.

After legal argument had been heard, decision was reserved.