Godefroy v. Hupp

160 P. 1056, 93 Wash. 371, 1916 Wash. LEXIS 1212
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 17, 1916
DocketNo. 13394
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 160 P. 1056 (Godefroy v. Hupp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Godefroy v. Hupp, 160 P. 1056, 93 Wash. 371, 1916 Wash. LEXIS 1212 (Wash. 1916).

Opinion

Ellis, J.

Action by a broker for services rendered in an exchange of personal property for real estate. There was evidence tending to establish the following facts: About December 1, 1913, defendants were the owners of certain real property and also of one hundred shares of the capital stock of Holland-Horr Mill Company, a corporation, as their community property. Defendant Fred R. Hupp employed plaintiif to make a sale or exchange of this property or any [373]*373part of it, agreeing to exchange any portion of it, either the stock alone or the real property alone or some of the real property and some of the stock, for other property, preferably a stock ranch or wheat farm. Hupp gave to plaintiff a list of the property, placing separate valuations on each item. The valuation placed on the Holland-Horr Mill Company stock was $800 a share. He promised to pay plaintiff a commission for making such a sale or exchange. For a number of months thereafter, plaintiff exerted himself to make a sale or exchange of this property and different parts of it. Different negotiations were had with Hupp’s approval involving prospective sales or exchanges of the stock alone. He was willing to sell or exchange the stock alone.

About four months after the property was listed with him, plaintiff employed one Mulcahy as an assistant in his office, agreeing to pay him one dollar a day and divide commissions on sales or exchanges of property in which he might assist. Mulcahy immediately wrote to various persons soliciting business. One of these, Schuler, a broker of Minneapolis, Minnesota, answered, returning a list of Minnesota properties among which was the Minnesota Loan & Trust Company building in Minneapolis, owned by the Franklin Avenue Investment Company, a corporation. The value of this building was placed at $350,000. There was a mortgage upon it for $155,000. Mulcahy submitted this list to defendant Hupp, who expressed himself as willing to exchange his property for this building. He made and delivered to Mulcahy a new list of his property, again placing a value of $800 a share on the one hundred shares of Holland-Horr Mill Company stock, and added a block of stock of the Dakota Oil Sands Company, a corporation owning certain oil lands at Calgary, Alberta. On this stock he placed a valuation of $5,000. Just here arises the first serious conflict in the evidence. Mulcahy testified that he then told Hupp that, in case of an exchange, the commission on the Holland-Horr Mill Company stock would be ten per cent, and [374]*374more than ten per cent on the Dakota Oil Sands Company stock. Hupp denied that, at this time, any mention was made of the commissions. After this for some time Mulcahy corresponded with Schuler, receiving from him photographs of the Minneapolis building, statements, letters, and telegrams, which Mulcahy submitted to Hupp. Among these was a letter from Schuler in part as follows:

Minneapolis, June 5, 1914.
Dear Geo.: I have your letter in answer to my wire. The deal can be put through, something like this:
Cash................................................. $40,000
H Horr Stk........................................... 50,000
Adams River ......................................... 50,000
Lincoln Co........................................... 5,000
Corbin Park ......................................... 18,000
Castor Alta .......................................... 8,000
Hayden Lake ........................................ 5,000
St. Joe ...-............................................ 5,000
1-8 Int. Calgary Oil Co................................ 15,000
$196,000
He says Bradstreet can report on the properties in five days if they want to trade. . . . Yours truly,
Henry Schuler.

Mulcahy testified that he submitted this letter to Hupp, and that thereafter throughout the negotiations the HollandHorr Mill Company stock was valued at $500 a share instead of $800 a share as included in Hupp’s original list. About the middle of June, 1914, Hupp, without notice to plaintiff or Mulcahy, went to Minneapolis and concluded the exchange. At this point arises the second serious conflict in the evidence. Both Mulcahy and plaintiff, Godefroy, testified that, on Hupp’s return from Minneapolis, he admitted to them that he had included in the exchange ninety shares of the Holland-Horr Mill Company’s stock at a valuation of $500 a share, and the oil stock at a valuation of $15,000. Hupp denied making this statement and testified in substance that, when he exchanged his real estate for the Minneapolis building, he threw in the stocks without placing upon them [375]*375any specific values. Upon Hupp’s return to Spokane after concluding the deal, plaintiff demanded from him a commission on the entire deal, including the stock and the real estate. Defendant refused to pay any commission on the ground that plaintiff had no contract in writing. This action followed. A writ of attachment was sued out and levied upon certain real estate as the property of Fred It. and Ella Hupp. At the trial, defendants objected to the introduction of any evidence upon the ground that the contract pleaded was within the statute of frauds, and at the close of plaintiff’s evidence moved for a nonsuit upon the same ground. The motion was denied. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $3,750. Defendant moved for judgment non obstante veredicto and also for a new trial. Both motions were overruled. Judgment was entered upon the verdict, and defendants appealed.

Appellants contend, (1) that the contract for commissions was indivisible and, being oral, was subject to the ban of the statute of frauds because it included real estate; (2) that the judgment against defendant Ella Hupp individually was in any event erroneous; (3) that the court erred in carrying the attachment into the judgment; (4) that the court erred in opening the case for admission of evidence and in excluding evidence offered in rebuttal of such evidence.

Whether respondent, through Mulcahy, was the procuring cause of the exchange as finally consummated was plainly a question for the jury. That they produced the person ready, able and willing to make the exchange cannot be questioned. The fact that the exchange as finally concluded did not embrace quite all of the real estate included in appellants’ list as left with respondent and did include certain machinery, a team, harness and wagon not included in that list, is immaterial. 'It is clear that in the main the exchange was concluded along the lines contemplated in Mulcahy’s correspondence with Schuler, which was submitted to Hupp and led to [376]*376his going to Minneapolis and closing the deal. In such a case, if the contract for the commissions had been in writing, there can be no question but that respondent would have had a maintainable cause of action for commissions on the entire transaction. Price v. Partridge, 78 Wash. 362, 139 Pac. 34.

But the contract for the payment of the commissions, being oral, was void so far as the real estate was concerned. Rem. 1915 Code, § 5289.

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Bluebook (online)
160 P. 1056, 93 Wash. 371, 1916 Wash. LEXIS 1212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/godefroy-v-hupp-wash-1916.