First of Maine Commodities v. Dube

534 A.2d 1298, 1987 Me. LEXIS 868
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedDecember 18, 1987
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 534 A.2d 1298 (First of Maine Commodities v. Dube) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First of Maine Commodities v. Dube, 534 A.2d 1298, 1987 Me. LEXIS 868 (Me. 1987).

Opinion

McKUSICK, Chief Justice.

Defendants Roger and Rita Dube appeal a judgment entered by the Superior Court (York County) following a jury trial awarding to plaintiff First of Maine Commodities (“Commodities”) the $69,000 broker’s commission it claimed for producing a ready, willing, and able buyer for certain real estate in Old Orchard Beach owned by the Dubes. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.

On April 10, 1984, the Dubes signed an “exclusive right to sell” listing agreement with plaintiff Commodities, a corporation that at all times relevant to this case has acted through its president, Alan Theriault, a licensed real estate broker. With the exception of sales to three named individuals already negotiating with the Dubes, the listing agreement gave plaintiff the exclusive right to sell defendants’ hotel and apartments located at 27 East Grand Avenue in Old Orchard Beach. The agreement ran for only one week; namely, until midnight, April 17. The listing price was $1.1 million, with $100,000 earnest money and the remainder to be paid in cash at closing. The agreement specified the broker’s fee as a percentage formula resulting in a $69,-000 commission on a sales price of $1.1 million. Finally, the agreement required payment of the commission if the broker negotiated a sale for the Dubes “at any other price or terms acceptable to” them.

On April 13 Theriault brought to the Dubes an offer of $1 million for the property from Ronald Vincent and David Rapa-port, accompanied by earnest money of $100,000. The offer also conditioned the sale on the provision by the sellers of a title abstract and title insurance, as well as on the completion of an adequate land survey and the buyers’ successful procurement of licensing for the condominium project they planned. When presented with the offer Mrs. Dube did not reject it but did express disappointment with the price. At trial, testimony of the parties sharply disputed whether she made any objection to the conditions additional to those expressly provided for in the listing agreement.

Over the next few days Theriault attempted without success to get a more definitive response from the Dubes to the offer. On Monday, April 16, after turning Theriault away from her door but asking him to call her that evening, Mrs. Dube and her husband left town, spending that night with her niece in Brunswick and then Tuesday night with her sister in Lewiston, not returning to Old Orchard Beach until Wednesday morning, April 18. Unable to contact the Dubes, Theriault went back to Rapaport and Vincent on April 17, the last day of the agreement, and got them to increase their offer to $1.1 million, with no substantive changes in the other terms set forth in their first offer. Theriault left this *1300 offer at the Dubes’ home the night of April 17. When Theriault called the Dubes the next day Mrs. Dube told him he was too late with the offer.

Commodities commenced this action on September 20, 1984, seeking recovery of the $69,000 broker’s commission provided under the listing agreement. In their answer defendants denied the claim and counterclaimed for rescission of the listing agreement and for attorney fees under the Consumer Solicitation Sales Act, 32 M.R. S.A. §§ 4661-4670 (1978 & Pamph.1986), and the Unfair Trade Practices Act, 5 M.R. S.A. § 213 (1979 & Supp.1987). At the conclusion of the trial held on August 18-21, 1986, the jury found specially for plaintiff that the plaintiff-broker had “produced ready, willing, and able buyers for the property in accordance with the terms authorized by the listing agreement.” 1 On the special verdict the court entered a judgment awarding plaintiff the $69,000 broker’s fee plus interest and costs and denying defendants’ counterclaim. The Dubes appealed in a timely manner to this court.

I.

Under Maine law a broker earns his commission when he has procured

a prospective purchaser ready, willing and able to purchase the property on the terms and conditions specified by the seller and communicated to the broker at the time of the listing....

Bowley v. Paine, 291 A.2d 712, 714 (Me. 1972). See also Jordan v. McNally, 124 Me. 216, 220-21, 126 A. 876, 877 (1924). Whether a broker has earned his commission within the terms of the agreement is a question of fact, Carter v. Beck, 366 A.2d 520, 522 (Me.1976), and on review we will uphold the verdict if there is credible evidence that would allow the jury rationally to reach the result that it did. True v. Ladner, 513 A.2d 257, 265 (Me.1986). Here the jury specially found as a fact that the broker had produced ready, willing, and able buyers in accordance with the terms authorized by the listing agreement. Since we find the jury’s special verdict adequately supported by the trial evidence, we affirm the judgment entered thereon.

Although the April 17 offer by Ra-paport and Vincent of $1.1 million included numerous conditions not specifically set out in the listing agreement, that agreement also stated that the commission must be paid if a sale is completed during the listing period “at any other price or terms acceptable to owner.” We must affirm the special finding, therefore, if the evidence presented at trial could reasonably allow a jury to find as a fact that, together with the $1.1 million sale price, the additional conditions were “other ... terms acceptable to” the Dubes.

When Theriault presented on April 13 the first offer of $1 million along with the additional conditions not specifically set forth in the listing agreement, Mrs. Dube at that time expressed disappointment with the offered price. A jury could reasonably have concluded, however, that she did not object to the additional conditions. Ther-iault testified that he had discussed the conditions that would be in the April 13 offer in a general manner with Mrs. Dube at the time she signed the listing agreement:

[I]t seemed all these things were pretty much common in that I suspected that they would show up in any agreement that would be made anyway.... So these are things to get started and it was just items that we had talked about.

He also testified that when he brought her the original offer Mrs. Dube did not object to those specific conditions, did not reject the offer, and expressed disappointment only with the price. Mrs. Dube herself testified that perhaps she had not rejected *1301 the conditions “outright” and had not specifically rejected this offer.

From that testimony a jury rationally could infer that the Dubes found acceptable everything in the April 13 offer except the $1 million price, and therefore when Theriault returned on April 17 with the $1.1 million offer and no additional conditions, he had produced an offer at the price established in the listing agreement and with “other ... terms acceptable to [the] owner.” Having done so, Commodities had earned the $69,000 commission under the listing agreement.

II.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Dancoes v. Marean
Maine Superior, 2017
Vose v. Taylor
Maine Superior, 2017
Bordetsky v. Charron
Maine Superior, 2011
Sanford v. NAT. ASS'N FOR THE SELF-EMPLOYED, INC.
640 F. Supp. 2d 82 (D. Maine, 2009)
Campbell v. First American Title Insurance
644 F. Supp. 2d 126 (D. Maine, 2009)
Good v. Altria Group, Inc.
501 F.3d 29 (First Circuit, 2007)
Osgood v. CU Insurance Company
Maine Superior, 2006
Lessard v. Allstate Ins. Co.
Maine Superior, 2001
Brown v. Peoples Heritage Bank
Maine Superior, 2000
Charette v. Twombly
Maine Superior, 2000
Smith v. Cannell
1999 ME 19 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1999)
Wyman v. Prime Discount Securities
819 F. Supp. 79 (D. Maine, 1993)
Chamberlain v. Porter
562 A.2d 675 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1989)
Harriman v. Maddocks
560 A.2d 11 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1989)
State v. Simanonok
539 A.2d 211 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
534 A.2d 1298, 1987 Me. LEXIS 868, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-of-maine-commodities-v-dube-me-1987.