National Airlines, Inc. v. Oscar E. Dooly Associates, Inc.
| Decision Date | 28 January 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 63-349,63-349 |
| Citation | 160 So.2d 53 |
| Parties | NATIONAL AIRLINES, INC., a Florida corporation, Appellant, v. OSCAR E. DOOLY ASSOCIATES, INC., a Florida corporation, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Scott, McCarthy, Preston & Steel, Miami, for appellant.
Ward & Ward, Miami, for appellee.
Before BARKDULL, C. J., and TILLMAN PEARSON and HENDRY, JJ.
The appellee, Oscar E. Dooly Associates, Inc., brought suit against appellant, National Airlines, Inc. for a real estate brokerage commission claimed upon the completed sale of a tract of acreage between the vendor, National Airlines, Inc. and the purchaser, Hilton Hotels, Inc. The broker received a jury verdict upon which final judgment was entered. This appeal is by the defendant.
The controlling issue is whether or not there was employment of the broker. The evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict is that the Dooly office had been working off and on for the sale of this particular property for approximately ten years. At one time the Dooly office received a written listing on the property which subsequently expired. When Mr. Conrad Hilton of Hilton Hotels and his Executive Vice President, Mr. Joseph Binns, were in Miami upon another matter, the broker, Mr. Van Kussrow, of the Dooly office, drove them by the subject property. The potentialities of the property for a motel development were pointed out by Mr. Kussrow.
The next morning Kussrow went to see Mr. Paul Scott who was on the Board of Directors for National Airlines and was their attorney. Mr. Scott telephoned, in Kussrow's presence, Mr. Ted Baker, the President of National Airlines. During this conversation Scott stated to Baker that Kussrow was present and that Kussrow was asking the price of the property for the purpose of attempting a sale to the Conrad Hilton interests. Baker was told that Kussrow had shown the property as above related. Baker stated a definite price which was given to Kussrow.
Appellant points out that an employment may not be implied solely from this conversation because there was a mere quotation of price and no discussion of a listing. Notwithstanding this contention, there is authority that the absence of a direct employment does not always bar a broker from recovery. Where the broker is found to be the procuring cause of a sale, he may be entitled to a commission. See cases collected at 8 Am.Jur., Brokers § 172 n. 6 (1937).
Whether a broker is a procuring cause of a sale depends upon facts and circumstances surrounding and attendant upon each particular case. Salter v. Knowles, Fla.App.1957, 97 So.2d 138. To be the procuring cause the broker must show that he called the potential purchaser's attention to the property and it was through his efforts the sale was consummated. See Wood v. Smith, 162 Mich. 334, 127 N.W. 277 (1910). If the broker has brought the parties together, and a sale is effected as a result of...
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