Edwards v. Billow

188 P.2d 748, 31 Cal. 2d 350, 1948 Cal. LEXIS 313
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 23, 1948
DocketL. A. 20252
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 188 P.2d 748 (Edwards v. Billow) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edwards v. Billow, 188 P.2d 748, 31 Cal. 2d 350, 1948 Cal. LEXIS 313 (Cal. 1948).

Opinion

SCHAUER, J.

Plaintiff real estate broker appeals from an adverse judgment in his action to recover a commission which he contends that he earned by procuring a purchaser for certain real property owned by defendant. Trial was before the court sitting without a jury. Plaintiff attacks the judgment on the grounds that the evidence is insufficient to support certain essential findings and that the trial court committed prejudicial error in overruling plaintiff’s objections to various questions asked by defendant of one of plaintiff’s witnesses. We have concluded that evidence properly admitted supports the findings attacked by plaintiff, that no prejudicial error is shown, and that the judgment must be affirmed.

Plaintiff alleges in his complaint that on or about December 24, 1944, defendant by a written instrument, termed by the parties a “listing agreement,” “employed, engaged and authorized” plaintiff to procure a purchaser for described real estate owned by defendant, at a price of $105,000, and by the same writing agreed to pay plaintiff for his services *352 “a sum equal to five per cent” of the price of $105,000; that pursuant to such written authority plaintiff, acting as defendant’s agent, “procured and induced” Mr. and Mrs. Don MacQuarrie to offer in writing, on or about December 27, 1944, to purchase defendant’s property; that the offer, which is set out in full in the complaint, * was “subscribed by Mr. and Mrs. MacQuarrie and [by] defendant.”

Plaintiff next alleges " That said offer was accepted by the said defendant Sue E. Billow who endorsed her acceptance of the same in writing upon the paper containing said offer as the same is set forth hereinabove. That said Don MacQuarrie and his wife, Mrs. Don MacQuarrie, have at all times been ready, willing and able to purchase the property upon the terms specified in said offer. That said defendant Sue E. Billow has refused and continues to refuse to consummate the sale of the said property to the MacQuarries.” For a second and further cause of action plaintiff alleges that defendant “became indebted” to him in the sum of $5,250 for “services, work and labor . . . done by plaintiff as a real estate broker” for defendant at her “special instance and request. ’ ’

*353 In her answer to the complaint defendant denies any liability or indebtedness to plaintiff; in this connection she denies all allegations of the paragraph of the complaint wherein plaintiff alleges the execution of the MacQuarrie offer and the acceptance thereof by defendant except that defendant admits “having signed her name on some paper”; she also denies all allegations of the paragraph averring that the purchasers produced by plaintiff “have at all times been ready, willing and able to purchase the property upon the terms specified in said offer.”

In further answer to the complaint defendant alleges, among other things, that at the time she signed the written listing agreement dated December 24, 1944, the condition of her eyes was such that she was unable to read and that she so informed plaintiff; that plaintiff thereupon stated to defendant that the listing agreement provided that defendant “would be under no obligation to pay a commission to him unless” defendant’s property “was actually conveyed to a purchaser he [plaintiff] might find,” and that it was “not necessary” for defendant to read the listing agreement; that solely in reliance upon such statements by plaintiff defendant signed the agreement. Defendant also alleges that “there was no consideration” for the so-called listing agreement.

Prior to trial defendant amended her answer to allege further that during all the transactions between the parties, “there was a confidential relationship existing” between defendant and plaintiff and plaintiff’s salesman, A. V. Siders; that although defendant’s property at all times concerned was worth $125,000 she was unaware of that fact until it was disclosed when, during the talcing of the deposition of A. Y. Siders, he testified that it was his personal opinion that the value was $125,000; that neither plaintiff nor Siders had ever theretofore informed defendant either of the fact of the true value of defendant’s property or of the opinion of Siders as to its value; that had defendant theretofore known of such fact or of the opinion by Siders “she would have been unwilling” to sell the property for “any sum less than $125,000.00.”

At the close of the testimony defendant, upon permission of the court, filed a further amendment to her answer in which she alleges that after she signed the MacQuarrie offer to buy, escrow instructions were prepared under the direction of plaintiff’s salesman, A. Y. Siders, by which it was *354 specifically agreed between the MacQuarries and defendant that consummation of the proposed sale should be contingent upon the obtaining of an agreement from the holders of a second trust deed on the property subordinating, their lien to a $44,000 first trust deed which the MacQuarries were to execute in favor of defendant. Defendant further alleges that through no fault of hers the subordination agreement was not obtained, and that therefore the sale could not be consummated and plaintiff is entitled to no commission.

The trial court found that at the request of one of plaintiff’s salesmen (A. E. Siders, not A. V. Siders) defendant signed a “listing card” which the salesman had filled out; that at the time of signing the card defendant could not read because of the condition of her eyes and “did not read the matter appearing” on the card; that she relied on the salesman for information concerning its contents. The listing card is set forth in full in the findings. It bears the date of “12/24/44” and in it appear the address of and various items describing defendant’s property. The price and terms of sale are also set forth, as follows: “Mortgage: Carry 1st Price: 105000 Cash: 30,000.” Then, immediately above defendant’s signature, is the following clause: “I, the undersigned, owner of the above described property, ... in the event it is sold by [plaintiff] . . . for the price and terms given or any other price and terms accepted by me, . . . promise and agree to pay a commission of . . . (5 percent) or to give all over and above net listing price.”

The court further found that on or about December 27, 1944, one A. V. Siders, another of plaintiff’s salesmen, presented to defendant the offer to buy signed by the MacQuarries, which is set forth in plaintiff’s complaint, and requested defendant “to accept same by signing her name thereto”; that defendant was still unable to read and signed the offer without reading it. It is also found that at the time such offer was presented by Siders and signed by defendant “it was the intention on the part of all parties, . . . the MacQuarries and defendant . . . [and] plaintiff and his salesman A. V. Siders . . ., that the terms and conditions of the sale proposed to be made by the defendant ... to the said MacQuarries, including the payment of a real estate or broker’s commission, should be incorporated in a further written agreement in the form of written escrow instructions”; that in fact a bank escrow officer, in accordance with directions from plaintiff’s salesman A. V. Siders who gave to such officer “all the terms *355

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
188 P.2d 748, 31 Cal. 2d 350, 1948 Cal. LEXIS 313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-billow-cal-1948.