Lay v. Fairfield Development

929 S.W.2d 352, 1996 Tenn. App. LEXIS 170
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMarch 19, 1996
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 929 S.W.2d 352 (Lay v. Fairfield Development) 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
Lay v. Fairfield Development, 929 S.W.2d 352, 1996 Tenn. App. LEXIS 170 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

McMURRAY, Judge.

This is an action to collect a real estate commission. The trial court resolved the issues in favor of the plaintiff and the defendants appealed. We reverse the judgment of the trial court and dismiss the ease.1

The only issue raised by the appellants challenges the propriety of the trial court’s judgment in favor of the plaintiff under the facts and circumstances of this case. Simply stated, the issue is whether or not the evidence preponderates against the findings of the trial court.

As we have often stated, our review of a non-jury case is de novo upon the record of the' trial court, accompanied by a presumption of the correctness of its findings, unless the preponderance of the evidence is otherwise. Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure, Rule 13(d). No presumption attaches to the trial court’s conclusions of law. In a de novo review, the parties are entitled to a reexamination of the whole matter of law and fact and this court should render the judgment warranted by the law and evidence. Thornburg v. Chase, 606 S.W.2d 672, 675 [353]*353(Tenn.App.1980); American Buildings Co. v. White, 640 S.W.2d 669, 576 (Tenn.App.1982); Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure, Rule 36.

Few material facts are in dispute. The record reflects that the defendants, at all times material, were the owners of a rather large tract of commercial land in the City of Cleveland. The defendants sought to develop their property by means of construction of a strip mall within which specific properties would be leased to tenants. The defendants employed the plaintiff, by written agreement, to attempt to procure prospective tenants and to develop the property. The agreement was for an initial period of ninety (90) days, however, the parties continued to operate under the terms set out in the agreement for a period of approximately three years. Under the terms of the agreement, the plaintiff was to receive a commission based on square footage of property leased by tenants procured by him. In addition to the commission for the leases, the defendants were to pay the plaintiffs expenses. There is no dispute concerning the expenses. It is important to note that the written agreement between the parties and their continued relationship concerned leased properties only. There was no written agreement concerning a sale of property, nor is there any evidence that a sale was contemplated by the parties at the time the agreement was entered into.

In the plaintiffs complaint, he sought as an element of his damages, the commissions that would have been due on three prospective tenants which he found for the defendants provided the leases had borne fruit. At the trial, the claim for these commissions was summarily dismissed. There is no appeal from this decision of the court. The parties’ written agreement and extension thereof by implication has no further bearing on the issues before the court.

The plaintiffs present claim is for a commission to which he claims he is entitled by virtue of an oral agreement between himself and the defendants. The defendants deny that there was ever an agreement between themselves and the plaintiff whereby he was to receive a commission for a sale of property-

The facts of the case are relatively simple. The plaintiff claims that he learned that Wal-Mart wanted to relocate its store in Cleveland.2 He contacted an agent of Wal-Mart and arranged a meeting of the various interested parties. It was at this meeting that the parties surprisingly learned that Wal-Mart was not interested in leasing property but was interested in purchasing property for a new store. The plaintiff claims that the defendant, Everhart, at this meeting, orally agreed to pay him a three percent (3%) commission if the sale was consummated. The defendants deny that there was an agreement to pay the plaintiff a commission on the sale.

The defendant, Max Everhart, as agent for the other defendants, had no authority to sell the real estate of his principals, therefore, it was necessary to defer a decision on the sale until he could confer with the true property owners. After consultation, Mr. Everhart was authorized to sell the property to Wal-Mart.

Subsequently, Wal-Mart proposed to enter into an option agreement, whereby, inter alia, Wal-Mart would have an option to purchase the property for a period of six months. Wal-Mart paid $10,000.00 for the option. The original proposed option agreement also contained a provision that the plaintiff was to receive a commission of three percent (3%) of the sales price. The defendants found the option agreement to be unacceptable. Subsequently, a new option agreement was entered into between the defendants and Wal-Mart. The new option agreement changed some of the terms of the option agreement among which was the omission of the commission for the plaintiff. At this point the business relationship between the plaintiff and the defendants ended.

The option agreement between the defendants and Wal-Mart was not exercised during the six month period, however, the option [354]*354agreement was amended to grant to Wal-Mart the right to extend the period of the option upon payment of additional sums. Wal-Mart did exercise its right to extend the option through April 1, 1992, and paid the defendants an additional $5,000.00 for a total of $15,000.00 in option money. Wal-Mart found the property to be unacceptable and elected not to exercise its option which, therefore, expired by its own terms.

Some fifteen (15) months later, the defendants executed a warranty deed to Wal-Mart for a tract of land adjoining and slightly overlapping the property which was the subject of the option. The property was sold to Wal-Mart for a purchase price of $1,774,-000.00. It is on this amount that the plaintiff claims a commission.

Simply stated, the only issue before us and that before the trial court was whether an enforceable oral contract existed between the plaintiff and the defendants whereby the defendants would pay a three percent (3%) commission to the plaintiff if any of the defendants’ property was sold to Wal-Mart. The chancellor, in his decision announced from the bench, made no specific finding that a contract existed. In resolving the issue in favor of the plaintiff, the trial court either implicitly found that such a contract existed or awarded damages to the plaintiff on an equitable basis. From his findings, we are unable to make that determination. Specifically, the chancellor found:

⅜ * * Sc * *
It’s stated that the original agreement was for leasing purposes, and I think that’s exactly right, but when Wal-Mart came into the picture and it became obvious that they were interested in buying and not leasing that did not seem to me to terminate the association between Mr. Lay [the plaintiff] and Mr. Everhart [one of the defendants]. It was negotiated and remained in negotiation till there was a little bit of dispute over the Duff property, and then when the contract was submitted to Mr. Everhart he said that he did not feel that the three percent brokerage fee should be in there.3 Mr. Everhart stated that they had never reached any kind of agreement on brokerage fee and Mr. Lay says that they had.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
929 S.W.2d 352, 1996 Tenn. App. LEXIS 170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lay-v-fairfield-development-tennctapp-1996.