Ramsdell v. Krehmke

THOMPSON (R. L.), J.,

pro tem.

This is an appeal from a judgment for $700 broker’s commissions for procuring a customer, ready, willing, and able to purchase real property situated in Butte County, upon the terms specified. April 5, 1926, the appellant signed an exclusive ten-day contract to pay respondent five per cent commissions for the sale of lots 18 and 19 of Gridley Tract Number 5, situated in Butte County, for the sum of $14,000, upon the following terms: “$6900.00 down and the balance secured by mortgage and contract for five years to pay $1600.00 a year, with interest at 6 per cent per annum until paid. . . . Evidence of title to be in the form of certificate of title issued by a responsible Title Company to be furnished and paid for by the seller.” The following day the respondent took Mrs. Ollie Osborne, a prospective purchaser who resided at Live Oak, to inspect the property, where she met the appellant on his ranch near Gridley. She was entirely satisfied with the property, and agreed to purchase it upon the terms specified, paying the respondent $500 to bind the bargain. April 13, 1926, the respondent, who also lived in Live Oak, within a few miles of Gridley, wrote the appellant at Gridley informing him that he had procured a customer in the person of Mrs. Ollie Osborne, who was ready, willing, and able to purchase the property upon the exact terms specified in their listing contract of April 5th, and enumerated these terms in the letter, requesting the appellant to at once procure his certificate of title so as to enable them to close the sale within the time mentioned. At the bottom of this letter the proposed purchaser signed the following postscript:

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“I have agreed with Mr. H. R. Ramsdell to purchase the property above mentioned for the sum of $14,000.00, upon the terms contained in the written authorization dated April 5, 1926, and given to said H. R. Ramsdell by C. P. Krehmke, and I have funds on hand to make the initial payment of $6000.00, and I have deposited with said H. R. Ramsdell the sum of $500.00 to be applied on the purchase price of said property, and as evidence of good faith on my part. Dated, April 13, 1926. (Signed) Ollie Osborne." The owner, however, evidently sought to avoid the contract, and the sale was not consummated.

Upon the assumption that the evidence supported the findings that the respondent had procured a customer within the allotted time who was ready, willing, and able to purchase the property upon the terms specified, the court rendered judgment in his favor for the sum of $700. The appellant contends that the findings and judgment are not supported by the evidence, for the reason that (1) The proof fails to show that the customer was able to purchase the property upon the terms specified; (2) A written contract of purchase was neither procured from the customer, nor were the parties brought together so as to enable the owner to consummate the sale; and (3) The contract for broker’s commissions was procured by fraud. The well-established rule requiring the payment of broker’s commissions is not disputed, to the effect that a broker is deemed to be the procuring cause of sale so as to entitle him to his commissions, when he has secured a customer, ready, willing, and able to purchase the property upon the terms prescribed in the contract of employment, and has either obtained from the customer an enforceable written contract to buy the property on the terms designated, or in lieu thereof, has succeeded in bringing the parties together so as to enable the owner to consummate the sale. (4 Cal. Jur. 582, sec. 25.) Where the sale is not consummated, proof is required showing the actual signing of an enforceable contract to purchase the property on the part of the customer, or that the parties have been brought together to enable the owner to consummate the sale.