Brown v. Mason

MELVIN, J.

This was an action for the recovery of fifteen thousand dollars, as commissions which plaintiff asserted were due him for services as a broker in selling for defendant a note and mortgage for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and all of the stock of the Pokegama Sugar Pine Lumber Company, a corporation, owning a large tract of timber land in the state of Oregon. Judgment was given for defendant, and from it plaintiff appeals.

The complaint contained three counts, the first pleading an employment of plaintiff by defendant to make a sale of the stock, note, and mortgage, and a performance of services under such employment “reasonably worth the sum of $15,000”; the second is an ordinary count on a

quantum, meruit;

and the third is a common count in

indebitatus assumpsit.

It appears that in 1904 the defendant Mason owned the stock of the Pokegama Sugar Pine Lumber Company, and a mortgage for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars upon the Klamath Lake Railroad. This railroad was owned principally by one Hervey Lindley, who was very anxious to make a sale of the road in conjunction with defendant’s land. Lindley sent Brown to Mason in November, 1904. An agreement

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was obtained whereby defendant promised to sell his stock and mortgage for three hundred and ninety thousand dollars, of which ninety thousand dollars was to he paid at once and the balance in three yearly payments of one hundred thousand dollars each. This option was to remain in force until January 1, 1905. Mason also signed a promise to pay Brown fifteen thousand dollars if the latter should succeed in closing the sale in accordance with the terms of the option. At the request of Brown the option was afterwards extended to the tenth day of January, 1905. On the last-mentioned date the appellant took one George L. Long, a representative of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, to Los Angeles, and introduced him to respondent. Mason refused to give an extension of tbe option, but gave Long a new option on the same property for four hundred thousand dollars, good until February 11, 1905. He also agreed to pay Brown fifteen thousand dollars if this sale should be made. At the expiration of this second option an unsuccessful attempt was made by Long to secure an extension. Negotiations between Long and Mason had apparently terminated. On March 9, 1905, the respondent wrote to appellant, telling him that the transaction was at an end. On April 11, 1905, appellant Brown, wrote to Mason and spoke of the matter of his compensation. He received a reply, dated April 12th, in which the writer used the following language: “We have now taken the matter up directly with the Cooks and made a compromise deal at a greatly reduced price, which is to be net to us. I utterly fail to see how you are connected with this deal at all, certainly you were not for us.” The Cooks mentioned were two brothers who had a judgment against the Pokegama company and Hervey Bindley. They secured a contract of sale from Mason for this property at three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, but the negotiations failed and Mason rescinded this agreement in May, 1905. The court below found that this contract was secured at the instigation of Long, but that Mason was ignorant of that fact. During the summer of 1905 Long made an unsuccessful endeavor to secure the property and then dropped negotiations until November, when he went to Los Angeles, secured an option on the property and purchased it finally in December, 1905, for the sum of three hundred thousand dollars.