Coggin v. Bursom

70 S.W.2d 338, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 352
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 22, 1934
DocketNo. 2968.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 70 S.W.2d 338 (Coggin v. Bursom) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coggin v. Bursom, 70 S.W.2d 338, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 352 (Tex. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

WALTHALL, Justice.

J. W. Bursom and W. L. McIntosh, plaintiffs in the trial court, brought this suit against T. J. Coggin, defendant, to recover a commission alleged by plaintiffs to be due them for the sale of land belonging to Cogg-in in the state of New Mexico.

• Defendant Coggin answered by general denial, specially denied any listing of the land *339 for sale with plaintiffs, and denied that plaintiffs were the procuring cause of the sale of the land.

■ The case was submitted to a jury on special issues, and on the jury’s findings judgment was rendered for plaintiffs.

Opinion.

We will designate the parties respectively as plaintiffs and defendant as in the trial court.

Defendant submits that at the close of the evidence the court should have directed a verdict in his favor as requested, because (a) the pleadings and the evidence are insufficient to show a contract to pay any commission for the sale of the land; (b) the evidence fails to show' that plaintiffs, or either of them, were the procuring cause of the sale.

Omitting the formal parts of plaintiff’s petition, briefly stated, it is alleged in substance:

Paragraph 2: The defendant on or about the 15th day of May, 1931, placed and listed his said ranch with plaintiff Bursom, as a real estate agent, at the gross price of $35,-000, a part to be paid in cash and part to be paid in deferred payments.

Paragraph 3: That it was thereby impliedly agreed and understood that, if plaintiff should obtain a puchaser for the defendant and bring about and cause a sale for the defendant of the ranch for said sum of $35,000, that defendant would pay to plaintiff, as compensation for his services as such broker, the usual and customary commission for such services, which was and is the sum of 5 per cent of the selling price of said ranch, or the total sum of $1,750.

Paragraph 4: That plaintiff did on or about the 15th day of June, 1931, acting with and through his subagent, McIntosh, procure for defendant a purchaser for said lands in the person of E. O. (Ted) Houton and wife, Martha Shelton Houton, at the price of $35,-000, a part to be paid in cash and a part in deferred payments; said' Ted Houton and Martha Shelton Houton then and there did in fact purchase said land at said price and on said terms.

Paragraph 5: That at the time of listing said ranch for sale and at the time of sale there was no specific contract made between plaintiff and defendant as to the amount of commission to be paid by defendant in tbe sale of said ranch, but plaintiffs allege that ¡the usual and customary compensation paid by owners of lands to agents in making sale of same in the locality was tbe sum of 5 per cent, of tbe selling price of the land sold, and that it was impliedly agreed by and between such parties in tbe event of such sale that the defendant would pay plaintiff the usual and customary commission prevailing in such locality at such time, and that, in the absence of a specific contract for a commission, plaintiffs were entitled to the “usual and customary commission.

Paragraph 6: Plaintiffs have performed all duties and services in the premises and earned such commission; defendant has failed and refuses to pay plaintiffs, to their damage, $1,750.

Paragraph 7: Pleads in the alternative that, if plaintiffs should be mistaken that the sale of defendant’s ranch was made by plaintiff Bursom, then plaintiff alleges the fact to be that on the date stated defendant listed his said ranch for sale with plaintiff Bursom as his agent for the sale of said ranch, and that defendant impliedly agreed and promised to pay plaintiff the usual and customary commission for the sale of real estate in that locality.

Paragraph 8: That, in pursuance of such contract, Bursom enlisted the aid of coplain-tiff, McIntosh, 'in procuring a purchaser of said ranch, and that plaintiffs, one or both, procured Ted Houton and wife as purchasers, and tendered them to defendant as purchasers, that defendant accepted them as such purchasers, and accepted the benefit of the services of plaintiffs, and defendant thereafter did execute his deed of conveyance to said ranch to said Houton and wife, who paid defendant therefor said sum of $35,000 partly in cash and partly in deferred payments.

Paragraphs 9 and 10 pleaded similarly to the first count to the.effect that plaintiffs were the procuring cause of the sale of said ranch; that, while there was no specific contract as to the amount of commission to be paid, the sum of 5 per cent, of the selling price was impliedly agreed upon, and a reasonable commission to be paid for the service in making such sale.

At the close of the evidence, defendant filed a motion for an instructed verdict non ob-stante veredicto in his favor. The record shows no action of tbe court on the motion.

On special issues submitted the jury found:

(1) On or about May 15, 1931, defendant, Ooggin, “employed or authorized the plaintiff, J. W. Bursom, to find a purchaser for his ranch, described in bis petition.”

(2) Subsequent to such employment, plaintiff Bursom employed McIntosh to effect the sale of the Coggin ranch.

*340 (3) Subsequent to tbe employment of Bur-som by Coggin, plaintiffs “made an effort to cause tbe sale of defendant Coggin’s ranch to Martha Shelton Houton.”

(4) Such efforts of plaintiffs were the procuring cause of the sale of defendant’s ranch to Martha Shelton'Houton.

The record does not show any action by the court on any demurrer to plaintiffs’ pleading, so “we must accord to the allegations of the petition every reasonable intendment in favor of the right sought to be enforced.” S. L. S. W. Ry. Co. v. Spivey, 97 Tex. 143, 145, 76 S. W. 748, 749.

A brief summary of the evidence in considering its sufficiency to justify the submission of the issues to the jury is all that is necessary, and in doing so we may consider only such of the evidence as tends to support the jury’s findings.

Plaintiff Bursom testified: “I was sitting there in the lobby (De Soto Hotel at Dalhart, Texas) and I saw Mr. Coggin come in the door, which enters in the northwest corner of the lobby; he walked in a little piece and was looking around, looked like he was looking for somebody. I'got up out of my office and went and met Kim, shook hands with him, passed a feiw words, the time of 'day and such things as that; my main business was to ask him about his ranch, if he would sell his ranch, and he said he would; he said he hadn’t been wanting to sell it, but he would make up his mind to sell; he couldn’t sell his place in El Paso and wanted to sell the ranch. I told him if he would list it with me, I thought I had a buyer. He said all right he would give me a listing; he wanted $35,000.00 for the ranch as a whole.

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Bluebook (online)
70 S.W.2d 338, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 352, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coggin-v-bursom-texapp-1934.