Crevier v. Stephen
| Decision Date | 19 March 1889 |
| Citation | 40 Minn. 288 |
| Parties | LOUIS P. CREVIER <I>vs.</I> KATE C. W. STEPHEN. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Cobb & Wheelwright, for appellant.
Ferguson & Kneeland, for respondent.
By his complaint in this action plaintiff claims that as a real-estate broker he was employed by defendant to sell for her a certain tract of land at a fixed price and upon stated terms, for which, as his commission, she was to pay him the sum of $500; that he did so sell; and that defendant now refuses to pay for his services. The answer put in issue all of the principal allegations of the complaint. When the testimony had all been laid before the jury, the court directed, and the jury returned, a verdict for the defendant. If the testimony in plaintiff's behalf was sufficient to justify a verdict, or if from the whole evidence a cause of action was made out, the court erred in directing the action of the jurors. It seems that prior to October 6th defendant had listed her property for sale with the witness Wait, who was a real-estate broker. His authority to sell had expired, however, when, at plaintiff's request, (the plaintiff having a customer for the land at a certain figure,) Wait informed defendant by letter that he had found a purchaser, naming the amount which he would pay, and stating that, if defendant would sell for that price, he would wire her when the anticipated customer came to the city. To this defendant replied that, upon being notified, she would be at Wait's office. On the 6th of October, in response to a dispatch, the defendant proceeded to Wait's office, and there first met the plaintiff, and later on Mr. Yawkey, the person who proposed to purchase. The plaintiff's version of what occurred at this interview differs essentially from that of defendant. He testifies, and in the main is corroborated by Wait, that he informed defendant that he had a customer for her land, and asked the price; that, in response, she specified a net figure, whereupon he stated that his customer would pay more, naming the amount which had been mentioned in Wait's letter. At this defendant replied that she wanted no more than the net price fixed, and that plaintiff could have the excess as his commission. Subsequently he brought Yawkey to the office, presented him as the purchaser to defendant, and, at the latter's request, left them to arrange the details of the proposed trade. A contract was drawn by Yawkey, signed by defendant, in which she agreed to sell the land in question to Yawkey for the sum stated by plaintiff. She also received from him a small sum of money as part-payment of the purchase price. The plaintiff, although present, took no part in the details or terms of the sale, nor in the form or contents of the instrument executed by defendant.
As he was not called upon and had no voice in its preparation, — so far as now appears from the testimony, — he should not be held responsible if, as defendant asserts, it is...
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