McCartney v. Harbin

5 S.W.2d 780, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 382
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 5, 1928·No. No. 649.·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

BARCUS, J.

This suit was instituted by appellee against appellant to recover commissions which he claimed were due him as a real estate agent for the sale of certain land belonging to appellant. In his first amended petition appellee alleged that he was a real estate agent, that appellant had listed the land with him for sale and employed him to find a purchaser therefor, and that acting under said employment contract, he did find a purchaser who was ready, able, and willing to, and who did in February, 1925, purchase the property for $49,437.37. He alleged that the usual and customary commissions paid real estate agents for the sale of land was 5 per cent, on the selling price, that appellant knew said fact, and that, by reason of having employed him to sell the land, appellant thereby agreed to pay said 5 per cent, commission, and, by reason of his having been the procuring cause of the sale being made, appellant was indebted to him for said amount. By a second amended petition filed in June, 1927, in addition to the above contract of employment appellee for the first time alleged that, if the sale of the land was not consummated solely by him, then that he aided in the sale of the land by getting the purchaser interested, and that he materially assisted appellant in making the sale, and that appellant accepted and profited by his work and services rendered, and by reason thereof appellant was bound and obligated to pay him- therefor a reasonable compensation, which he alleged to be 2½ per cent, of the selling price. Appellant answered by general demurrer, special exceptions, general denial, and specially pleaded that the cause of action, in so far as it sought to recover for services rendered by appellee in assisting in the sale, was barred by the statute of limitation.

The cause was submitted to a jury on two special issues, which were answered by the jury, as follows;

“(1) Was the plaintiff, E. P. Harbin, the procuring cause of making the sale of the land described in plaintiff’s petition?” to which the jury answered: “No.”
“(2)' If Harbin was not the procuring cause of the sale of the land, but his services at the instance of McCartney assisted in producing such sale, then what is the reasonable value in dollars and cents of the services and efforts, if any, of E. P. Harbin in connection with the sale of the land mentioned in plaintiff’s petition, including 6 per cent, interest on same from January 20, 1925, to this date?” to which the jury answered: “$1,418.84.”

The trial court entered judgment for appel-lee for the amount found by the jury in answer to the second question.

*781 By several assignments of error and propositions, appellant contends that the trial court should have, entered judgment for him on the answer of the jury to the first issue. Appellant contends that appellee was not entitled to recover for any services rendered in assisting in the sale of the land, because he did not allege that he had been employed to assist or that he had any contract under which he could bind appellant for services of that character, and because this feature of his cause of action, if any, was barred by the statute of limitation. Appellee in neither the original nor first amended petition suggested that he had been employed to assist or had rendered appellant any assistance in mating the sale. McCartney was a real estate agent living in Dallas, and he owned about 300 acres of land in Ellis county which he listed with appellee and a number of other real estate men, including his firm, for sale. Appellee does not claim to have had an exclusive listing thereof. He testified that he was only employed by appellant to sell the land, and that, unless he was the procuring cause of the sale, under his interpretation of the contract of employment, he was not entitled to any compensation. In his testimony he did not claim that he was employed to assist in making the sale. The record shows that Mrs. Cunningham, the purchaser of the property, through her purchasing agent, had been seen a number of times by both appellee and appellant, who, independent of and without any knowledge on the part of the other, were attempting to sell the land to Mrs. Cunningham. There was evidence tending to show that appellant was the procuring cause of the sale. The jury, however, found against appellant on that issue.

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

McCartney v. Harbin, 5 S.W.2d 780, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 382 (Tex. Ct. App. 1928).

5 S.W.2d 780 (McCartney v. Harbin) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Coggin v. Bursom
70 S.W.2d 338 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1934)
Denton v. Cole
20 S.W.2d 361 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1929)