Gilbert v. Smith

14 Tenn. App. 500, 1932 Tenn. App. LEXIS 59
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMarch 19, 1932
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 14 Tenn. App. 500 (Gilbert v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gilbert v. Smith, 14 Tenn. App. 500, 1932 Tenn. App. LEXIS 59 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

CROWNOVER, J.

This was a suit to collect a real estate agent’s commission on an exchange of real estate.

*502 Tbe original bill alleged that complainant was a licensed real estate agent; that defendant Smith employed him to sell or exchange his farm in Rhea County; that complainant found one T. J. Stone who owned valuable timber lands which he wished to sell or exchange; that complainant introduced the parties and took each to see the other’s property, and entered into a contract with each that if the exchange should be made each would pay him a commission of $1500; that the exchange was made and complainant earned his $1500 to be paid by Smith, which is due and unpaid.; that he has demanded same but defendant has refused to pay it.

Defendant answered and denied that, he employed Gilbert to sell his farm; and alleged that Gilbert was the agent of T. J. Stone, the owner of some timber, and as such agent undertook to make an exchange of said timber for defendant’s farm; that at a later date defendant and Stone entered into a trade of said properties without the assistance of Gilbert.

After the taking of proof complainant filed an amended and supplemental bill, alleging that Smith Was a non-resident of the State of Tennessee; that the Williams & Voris Lumber Co., of Hamilton County, Tennessee, was indebted to Smith; that Smith owed complainant $1500; and prayed for an attachment by garnishment of said Williams & Voris Lumber Co.’s account. Attachment was issued and garnishment served on Williams & Voris Lumber Co.

Williams & Yoris Lumber Co. answered that they were not indebted to Smith. S. A. Williams, President of Williams & Yoris Lumber Co., answered, stating that his Company was not indebted to Smith, but explained that it had entered into a written contract with defendant Smith for said timber and had advanced $10,000 to defendant Smith to enable him to pay off certain lien indebtedness on said timber and that he might cut and deliver said timber to said Company at prices set out in the contract, to be credited on said advancement until the Company was paid.

Defendant Smith filed a plea in abatement to the attachment, deny-that he was a non-resident of the State of Tennessee and a resident of the State of Georgia.

Complainant filed exceptions to the answer of the Lumber Company.

Defendant D. D. Smith moved for leave to give bond in lieu of the attachment and garnishment, which was allowed, and a bond for $3000 was filed and the garnishee dismissed and released and the attachment discharged.

Issue was joined on the plea in abatement and a motion to strike joinder of issues on the plea was overruled.

*503 Pro confesso was taken against Smith under tbe amended and supplemental bill.

Smith moved to strike and dismiss the amended and supplemental bill on the ground that same was filed without leave of the court first had and obtained, which was overruled by the court, for the reasons that Smith had waived this irregularity by filing the plea in abatement and by executing bond and having attachment dismissed.

The Chancellor found that Smith and Stone were not acquainted with each other and neither knew about the property of the other until Gilbert had introduced them and had taken each to see the property owned by the other, and that the trade or exchange of properties was the direct result of the activities of Gilbert; but that they had later dropped Gilbert and agreed upon an exchange on different terms; that there was no express contract on Smith’s part to pay him $1500; that Gilbert was entitled to a commission on an implied promise; that defendant’s claim that Gilbert agreed to look to Stone alone for his commission was not sustained by the weight of the proof, but defendant had admitted that he agreed to pay Gilbert “what was right”; that there being no express contract fora definite sum as commission complainant is entitled to a commission based upon the fair market value of the property; that the proof showed a custom to divide commissions equally between the parties where an exchange Was made, which was adopted by the court; that the property exchanged for which commission is sought to be collected was an 800 acre farm in Rhea County, mortgaged for $13,000, which mortgage was assumed by Stone; that Stone conveyed to Smith a one-half interest in the timber upon a tract of land in Georgia, upon which there was a mortgage which Smith assumed. The Chancellor ordered a reference to the Master to report, first, the fair cash market value in September, 1928, of the one-half interest in the Georgia timber, less one-half of the incumbrance upon the whole timber tract, to which should be added the incumbrance on the Rhea County farm, in September, 1928, assumed by Stone. Second, the customary commission under such circumstances, and if no custom then the reasonable compensation.

The Master reported that the encumbrance on said timber tract was $4000; that the value of one-half of the timber less one-half of the encumbrance was $5500; that this amount added to the amount of the mortgage on the Smith farm, $13,000, would make $18,500, the valuation of the property received by Smith in this trade or exchange; that the customary percentage on such transactions is seven and one-half per cent; that the commission is divided between the *504 parties in such cases; therefore a reasonable commission to Gilbert from Smith would be $693.75.

The Chancellor confirmed the Master’s report and decreed that defendant was indebted to complainant in the sum of $693.75, and rendered a decree against him. He further found and decreed that Smith was a non-resident of Tennessee within the -meaning of the attachment laws, and rendered judgment against the sureties on the forthcoming bond.

Defendant appealed to this court and has assigned errors, which, when summarized, are as follows:

“(1) The court erred in holding that Smith made an agreement with Gilbert to pay him a commission for effecting a sale or exchange of his property.
“(2) The court erred in holding that Smith was a non-resident of Tennessee at the time of the filing of the amended and supplemental bill upon which attachment issued.
“(3) The court erred in sustaining the attachment. It is insisted that the attachment was void, (a) because complainant alleged that Smith had no property within the jurisdiction of the court, (b) because the "Williams & Voris Lumber Co. had none of his property, (c) because the amended bill failed to allege that claim sued on was just, (d) because the attachment w'as against "Williams & Voris Lumber Co. and not against Smith.
“(4) The court erred in rendering judgment on the forthcoming or replevy bond, as no property was attached.”

IT. A. Gilbert is a licensed real estate agent in Chattanooga. In 1928 he had his office with S. P. Long & Co., real estate agents.

T. J. Stone owned a tract of timber in Dade County, Ga., near the Nick-a-Jack Cave, which he desired to sell. There was a mortgage of $4000 on this property. He listed it with Gilbert.

D. D.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
14 Tenn. App. 500, 1932 Tenn. App. LEXIS 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gilbert-v-smith-tennctapp-1932.