SALE OF A CITY HOTEL.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5557, 7 April 1905, Page 5

SALE OF A CITY HOTEL.

DISPUTE OYER COMMISSION. JUDGMENT FOR MACDONALD, WILSON AND CO. Yesterday morning Dr A. McArthur, S.M., gave judgment for defendants With costa in tie case in which Charles William Brodie sued Macdonald, Wilson and Co. for £SO, being his share of the commission paid by Mrs Hannah Watson to the defendants on account of the sale of the goodwill of the lease of the Oriental Hotel to John Pagni, and which commission defendants were alleged to have agreed to share equally with plaintiff. The Magistrate said the simple question was whether or not there was an agreement between the parties to divide the commission. There was an absolute contradiction between the plaintiff and Gumming, hotel salesman for defendants, as to the alleged agreement, and there did not appear to the Magistrate from the evidence to have been, a sufficiently distinct consensus between plaintiff and Gumming. “Had plaintiff had the solo right of sale, and was also prepared to finance the ultimate purchaser, I do not see why he should be willing to share commission at all. Evidently plaintiff did not rely on Cumming’s statement as to the division of commission, and this, to my mind, showed that there had been no binding agreement between them. There may have been, and probably was, a tentative one. but no concluding one. Again, the defendants, it is plain, could have sold, and did sell, without any reference to the plaintiff.” Mr D. Findlay appeared for defendant and Mr Skerrctt for plaintiff.