COMMISSION ON SALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19148, 14 October 1925, Page 15

COMMISSION ON SALE.

COURT ACTION SUCCEEDS, SIGNATURE TO AGREEMENT. SECOND AGENT INTERVENES. Reserved judgment was delivered by Mr. E. G. Gotten, SAL, in the Magistrate's Court yesterday in the claim by John Fuxness, land agent (Mr. Fitzherbert) against Ella DurJop (Mr. Bennett) for £3B 2s 6d for commission on the sale of a property. The facts of the case were admitted. Defendant put a property in plaintiff's hands for sale. Plaintiff found a purchaser who expressed himself satisfied with the premises. Plaintiff prepared an agreement between the parties and obtained defendant's signature to it, but the purchaser did not have with him the means to pay the deposit and left plaintiff's office stating he would call again the next day, pay the deposit and sign the agreement. He did not return the next day, for, after leaving plaintiff's office another land agent met him, and on ascertaining the position this agent persuaded the purchaser to pay the deposit to him and obtained his signature to an agreement of sale. The second agent then waited on defendant and obtained her signature to the agreement. The purchaser was called as a witness for plaintiff and stated in his evidence that plaintiff took him to defendant's house, and introduced him to her. He said that be and his wife were satisfied and he told Mr. Furness that he would come back and pay the deposit and sign the agreement next day. "The question is whether in these circumstances, plaintiff made a sale of property," the magistrate said. '"Several cases with somewhat similar circumstances have lately come before this Court. In this case, however, the intervention oi the second land agent came, I think, too late. It is the duty oi' a land agent, in order to entitle him to his commission, to find a purchaser willing to purchase and capable of purchasing the property. This in practice means that the land agent finds a person with a general desire to purchase a property and persuades him to purchase the property in question. It is a matter of finding a likely purchaser and then making the necessary Impression upon his mind. In this case plaintiff persuaded the purchaser to purchase this particular property, the evidence of that fact, being the. land agent's evidence of what took place, the purchaser's evidence to this effect, and the fact that he did purchase the property at the price and on the terms he agreed with plaintiff. "Although land agents, in order both to clinch the matter and to afford the best proof of the part they have had in it, usually obtain the purchaser's signature to an agreement, or accompany the purchaser to a solicitor's office where an agreement is signed, yet, except for the purpose of attaining these ends, it is not a- necessary part of the work of a land agent to prepare an agreement and obtain the purchaser's signature thereto. I find as a fact in this case that the relation of buyer and seller was brought about by plaintiff and he is entitled to the commission claimed." Judgment was given for the amount claimed with costs.