Evertson v. Warrach

132 S.W. 514, 1910 Tex. App. LEXIS 982
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided December 5, 1910·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

REESE, J.

J. C. Evertson brings this suit in the county court to recover of H. War-rach, Jr., $375 claimed by him as commissions for malting a sale of a certain storehouse and lot belonging to H. Warrach, Jr. It was alleged that Warrach had employed the plaintiff to sell the property, agreeing to give him a commission of 5 per cent, on the price, and that through his instrumentality the property had been sold to one J. H. Wet-tick for $7,500, whereby defendant had become indebted to him for his commission, amounting to $375. Defendant denied that plaintiff had had anything to do with the sale to Wettick, or that he was entitled to any commission. The case was tried without a jury, resulting in a judgment for defendant, from which the plaintiff prosecutes this appeal.

The trial court found that appellee had employed appellant to sell the property, agreeing to give him 5 per cent, commission, and that he accepted the employment and undertook to find a purchaser. The case turned entirely upon the issue of fact as to whether appellant had procured Wettick as a purchaser of the property, and thereby earned the commission.

The nineteenth and twentieth assignments of error are as follows:

“The uncontroverted evidence in this case being that J. H. Wettick came to Victoria from Kansas on the 4th day of February, 1909, and on the 6th day of February, 1909, began the negotiations with J. C. Evertson for the purchasing of the Levytansky building in the city of Victoria, the same being the property at that time of H. Warrach, Jr., and there being no evidence adduced in the trial that Warrach knew of such a man as J. H. Wettick or that Mullinax knew of the existence of such a man as J. H. Wettick until after said negotiations between Wet-tick and Evertson had begun and until after Warrach had received notice from J. C. Ev-ertson- by the long distance telephone, and that Warrach did not know and did not profess to know what occurred between Evert-son and Wettick as to the sale of said property to Wettick, the court erred in not finding from the evidence that J. C. Evertson found the purchaser for said property, to wit, J. H. Wettick, and began the negotiation for the sale of said property at a fixed price, viz., $7,500, and that H. Warrach, Jr., sold said property for said price to the purchaser found and introduced by J. C. Evert-son by phone, and erred in not rendering judgment in favor of Evertson for the amount sued for, viz., $375.

“The uncontroverted evidence in this ease establishing the fact that J. C. Evertson was the procuring cause of said sale by Warrach to Wettick, and that Warrach sold said property to Wettick at the price fixed by J. C. Evertson, the court erred in not rendering judgment in favor of J. C. Evertson against the defendant Warrach for the reasonable value of J. O. Evertson’s. services, which under the testimony is established to be 5 per cent., upon the gross amount of said sale.”

Under these assignments of error and the [515] propositions thereunder, appellant, after stating very fully the testimony of himself and Wettick, ignores entirely the testimony of appellee, who flatly contradicts both of the said witnesses upon the material points upon which rests appellee’s liability, and also the testimony of witnesses who in many important particulars impeached the testimony of Wettick. The assignment certainly demanded a fair statement of all of the evidence on the question presented. Rule 81, 94 Tex. 660, 81 S. W. vii. The uneontroverted testimony shows the employment of appellant to sell the property at an agreed commission of 5 per cent, for $7,500, $1,000 cash, the terms as to the balance to be settled by appellee, and also that the property was afterwards sold by appellee to Wettick for that price. Here the parties split. The testimony of appellant and his witness Wettick fully supports appellant’s claim that he was the procuring cause of the sale, that he entered into negotiations with Wettick at Victoria on February 6th and offered him the property for $7,500, that he then called up appellee, who lived at Port Lavaca, over the telephone, and told him he had found a purchaser for the property, and then introduced Wettick, who was in the booth with him, to appellee, who had some conversation with him, in consequence of which Wettick, in company with one Mullinax, who occupied the building as a tenant of appellee and had also been authorized to sell by appellee, went to Port Lavaca the next day, and saw appellee and closed the deal with him for the purchase of the property at the price named. If these facts are true, appellant would be entitled to his commission.

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Evertson v. Warrach, 132 S.W. 514, 1910 Tex. App. LEXIS 982 (Tex. Ct. App. 1910).

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