Bromberg v. Drake

85 S.E.2d 160, 91 Ga. App. 118, 1954 Ga. App. LEXIS 876
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 22, 1954
Docket35372
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 85 S.E.2d 160 (Bromberg v. Drake) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bromberg v. Drake, 85 S.E.2d 160, 91 Ga. App. 118, 1954 Ga. App. LEXIS 876 (Ga. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

Gardner, P. J.

It is the contention of the defendant that the plaintiff did not procure a purchaser who was ready, able, and willing to buy the property of the owner at a price satisfactory to the owner. The record shows that the price of $53,000, including a cash payment of $15,000, was the price for which the house was sold and therefore was the price satisfactory to the owner. The legal tradition is recognized that Code § 4-213 applies. That section reads: “Broker's right to Commission.— The fact that property is placed in the hands of a broker to sell *120 shall not prevent the owner from selling, unless otherwise agreed. The broker’s commissions are earned when, during the agency, he finds a purchaser ready, able and willing to buy, and who actually offers to buy on the terms stipulated by the owner.” A Code section involving civil law is frequently a compendium of the legal technique involved in the subject matter in question. The translation of Code sections is reflected by the courts in decisions rendered relative to such Code sections and are sometimes seemingly paradoxial; but a sincere student of the law will be able to readily discern and agree that in many fields of law each case must stand upon its own facts. Predicated upon this well-known and accepted theory, we hold that the cases of Fox v. Von Kamp, 52 Ga. App. 776 (184 S. E. 645), Starke v. Moultrie Banking Co., 58 Ga. App. 668 (199 S. E. 777), and Crutchfield v. Western Electric Co., 66 Ga. App. 161 (17 S. E. 2d 246), cited by counsel for the defendant, are not authority for reversing the judgment of the trial court. In the Fox case it was shown, among many other things to distinguish the facts in that case from those in the instant case, that it was very doubtful that the agent there involved had a listing on the property sold. In the Starke case this court upheld the grant of a nonsuit on the ground that the evidence failed to show a prima facie case that the efforts of the agents were the procuring cause of the sale. Not so in the instant case. In the Crutchfield case it was shown by the evidence that the purchaser who had spoken to the agent about the property had abandoned all idea of the trade. In the instant case, it is shown that the purchaser, when shown other houses, did not abandon the idea of purchasing the house here involved. There are other evidential facts in all three of the cases cited which differentiate those cases from the case at bar.

Being mindful of the fact that we have hereinbefore stated that the facts in no two cases are exactly alike, we call attention to one particular case and the citations therein which influences us to rule in favor of the plaintiff in the instant case. In Vaughn v. Clements, 65 Ga. App. 823 (16 S. E. 2d 607) this court said: “Ordinarily an agent to sell earns his commission only when he finds a customer ready, able, and willing to buy on the terms stipulated by the principal; but the principal cannot, with *121 the knowledge of the negotiations between the purchaser and the agent, and while such negotiations are still pending defeat the right of the agent to recover such commission by interfering with and himself completing the sale of which the agent was the procuring cause.” There are many other decisions to the same effect.

As far as the right of Mrs. DeGolian to look at property to be bought by her busy husband, we do not think that this warrants extensive discussion, since intelligent wives frequently survey markets and make decisions as to purchases, even though such purchases must be approved and paid for by the husband. We might say, however, that there is sufficient evidence to show that she was delegated the authority to see houses, but it was understood that Mr. DeGolian would necessarily have to approve the purchase before completion of negotiations. This may be done legally under the theory of law regarding such agency. See Foster & Ackerman v. Jones, 78 Ga. 150, 156 (1 S. E. 275). There is ample evidence to show that Mr. DeGolian approved Mrs. DeGolian’s seeing properties, and that he sometimes followed her suggestions and he himself investigated such properties, as he did in regard to the house which they eventually bought, the one here involved. The evidence shows that Mrs. DeGolian was in constant touch with Mrs. Caldwell, the agent of the plaintiff. There is no testimony that the defendant ever revoked the agency of the plaintiff. Mr. DeGolian was at all times fully cognizant that Mrs. DeGolian was in communication with the plaintiff and was trying to find a house for the DeGolian family to purchase. Keeping in mind that both Mr. and Mrs. DeGolian really wanted the property of the defendant, there is nothing in the record to show that counsel for the plaintiff protested the authority of Mrs. Caldwell to act as the agent of Drake Realty Company.

The courts are trustees for the interests of the people, and in guarding such interests must look to the seemingly small differences in facts, in considering general grounds, to arrive at a firm but restrained policy of realistic interpretation of codified law relatrve to such facts. This we have done in the instant case in arriving at the conclusion that there is ample evidence to support the verdict. See May v. Sibley, 85 Ga. App. 544 (1) (69 S. E. 2d 693). There is no merit in the general grounds.

*122 It is never error to refuse to direct a verdict, and special ground 1, complaining that the court erred in not directing a verdict for the defendant, is without merit. The provisions of Code (Ann. Supp.) § 110-113 (Ga. L. 1953, Nov.-Dee. Sess., p. 444), requiring a motion to direct a verdict as a condition precedent to a proper motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict made after the trial concludes, does not change this rule of law, but merely provides a new method (inapplicable here) by which a failure to direct a verdict may subsequently become the basis of reversible error, but where that statute is pursued, the error is not in failing to direct the verdict in the first instance, but in failing to grant the motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

Special ground 2 assigns error because the court, over objection, permitted the plaintiff, Drake, to testify that there was activity on the part of himself and his employee, Mrs. Caldwell, concerning the sale of the property in question, and particularly was there objection as to conversations between the witness Drake and his saleslady, Caldwell, for, while the saleslady could testify as to what she did, the witness could not testify as to conversations between him and. the saleslady. The court overruled the objections and admitted the testimony as a circumstance. Details of the conversations were not gone into. This ground is without merit.

Special ground 3 assigns error because the court admitted, over objections of the defendant, the conversations between Mrs. DeGolian and Mrs. Caldwell after March concerning whether or not Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
85 S.E.2d 160, 91 Ga. App. 118, 1954 Ga. App. LEXIS 876, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bromberg-v-drake-gactapp-1954.