Wolfenberger v. Madison

357 N.E.2d 656, 43 Ill. App. 3d 813, 2 Ill. Dec. 489, 1976 Ill. App. LEXIS 3377
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 17, 1976
Docket75-414
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 357 N.E.2d 656 (Wolfenberger v. Madison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wolfenberger v. Madison, 357 N.E.2d 656, 43 Ill. App. 3d 813, 2 Ill. Dec. 489, 1976 Ill. App. LEXIS 3377 (Ill. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE THOMAS J. MORAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, a real estate broker, received a jury award in the amount of *33,982 as brokerage commission for his efforts to sell the defendants’ 170-acre farm.

On appeal, the defendants assert that they are not liable for the commission because plaintiff never presented them with a buyer who was ready, willing and able to purchase their farm on the terms defendants claim to have made part of the employment contract between broker and seller. They further claim that the prospective purchaser was never bound to seller by any legally enforceable contract (asserted to be a necessary precedent to the earning of plaintiff’s commission). In connection with these points, defendants assert error in the trial court in the submission of certain instructions and the refusal of others. Defendants also assert that, under the rule of curative admissibility, they were unduly and prejudically restricted in their presentation of testimony. Defendants maintain, too, that there existed a fiduciary duty on the part of the broker to advise defendants of the tax advantages of the trade rather than a sale and, apparently, a duty to include in the employment agreement a contingency for a trade rather than a cash sale. The breach of this duty, defendants claim, precludes plaintiff from recovering a commission.

In support of their claim that the broker never produced a buyer bound by an enforceable contract, the defendants have moved this court for leave to amend their pleadings to include the defense of the Statute of Frauds. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 59, par. 1 etseq.) The record reveals some evidence regarding defendants’ theory of the case which could be considered to raise such statute, and we, therefore, allow the motion to amend the pleadings to conform to the proof.

In late February of 1971, Mr. Madison and his father contacted plaintiff, saying that they had a good offer for their farm and were interested in buying a larger farm. That same day, plaintiff showed the defendants two farms but, plaintiff states, there was no discussion regarding trading farms. Later that afternoon, Mr. Madison informed the plaintiff that the offer he had on his farm was for *2700 per acre. Thinking that offer too low, plaintiff advised defendants that he believed he could get *4000 per acre for their farm if he had some time to work on it, and he asked defendants for a six-month exclusive listing to allow him to do so. The defendants initially refused and, instead, entered into a three-week exclusive listing with another broker, Andresen. The written contract with Andresen ran during May, 1971, and was expressly contingent upon a trade being effected for another suitable farm. As the property was not sold by Andresen within that period, defendants again spoke with plaintiff who explained that he felt he could get the *4000 per acre by having the farm annexed to the city of Sycamore, and that he would work on it if they would grant him the six-month exclusive listing. The defendants agreed and signed the listing contract of May 26,1971, which, by its terms, gave plaintiff a six-month exclusive right to sell the subject farm at a price of *4000 per acre at a commission of 5%. Approximately one-half year later, the defendants signed another six-month exclusive listing agreement on the same terms as above. Neither agreement mentioned that plaintiff”s commission was to be contingent upon plaintiff finding a suitable, larger farm in trade for the subject property. Defendants testified that, at the time each of the agreements was signed, they specified to plaintiff that they did not want to sell without such a trade, but that plaintiff did not set out such condition in writing because, he said, it was unnecessary inasmuch as they were friends and he knew what they wanted. Plaintiff denies that such conversations took place.

In January, 1971, plaintiff conveyed to defendants three separate oral offers from a prospective purchaser, Mrs. Harbecke. In the third of these offers, Mrs. Harbecke agreed to purchase the farm for *4000 per acre. Subsequently, defendants apparently asked the prospective purchaser if they would be allowed to live on the farm rent free for a period of a year. Mrs. Harbecke indicated that defendants could remain in possession but rent would be due during their tenancy. Thereafter, plaintiff made recurrent attempts to have the defendants and Mrs. Harbecke meet for the purpose of signing a sales contract. According to plaintiff, defendants were repeatedly unavailable for reasons such as Mr. Madison was going out of town to check his seed corn, he was working on his income tax, he was moving snow, or Mrs. Madison had something planned for him to do around the home. At trial, defendants asserted that they did not meet the prospective buyer because the *4000 sales price, in absence of property in trade, was not acceptable to them for tax reasons. It was established at trial that defendants later granted the other broker, Andresen, an exclusive listing to sell this farm for *4000 per acre and that the property was actually sold by him at this price. Defendants assert that this sale involved a trade.

Mrs. Harbecke’s uncontradicted testimony at trial indicated that, at all times relevant, she was ready, willing, and able to purchase the subject property. The rule in Illinois is that a broker earns his commission when he produces a buyer ready, willing and able to purchase the property. (Fox v. Ryan (1909), 240 Ill. 391, 396.) A prospective purchaser will be considered ready and willing if he accepts the property on the terms offered by the seller and remains continuously willing to purchase during the relevant negotiations. (Garrett v. Babb (1975), 24 Ill. App. 3d 941, 946.) A prospective purchaser’s uncontradicted testimony that he was ready, willing and able to purchase the property makes a prima facie case that the broker earned his commission. (Robertson v. Reed (1976), 35 Ill. App. 3d 525, 527-28.) Implicit in the jury award herein is the jury’s finding that the seEers’ terms were *4000 per acre and that a trade contingency was not part of the listing contract. On appeal, this court may not disturb a jury’s finding unless it is against the manifest weight of the evidence. Here, the record clearly shows that the seEers’ terms were *4000 per acre, and, since the broker produced a buyer whose uncontradicted testimony indicates she was ready, wiEing and able to purchase the property on those terms, the broker made a prima facie case that his commission was due him.

Defendants assert that, based on the case of Wilson v. Mason (1895), 158 IE. 304, there is a further condition precedent to the earning of a broker’s commission: that the buyer must be bound to the seller by an enforceable contract. It is uncontroverted that no written offer or contract of sale was signed by the prospective purchaser. From this fact defendants argue that the prospective buyer was not bound to defendant by a valid and enforceable contract in writing, arid could have, had she wished, successfuEy raised the Statue of Frauds to defeat any mere oral contract formed.

There is clearly dicta in the Wilson case (158 Ill. 304,311-12 and 313-14), which supports the defendants’ latter proposition, but, as has been recurrently pointed out in cases since Wilson, that case did not deal with a seEer whose own fault prevented the consummation of the sale. When the seEer is at fault, the rule announced in Wilson is inapplicable. (Scott v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
357 N.E.2d 656, 43 Ill. App. 3d 813, 2 Ill. Dec. 489, 1976 Ill. App. LEXIS 3377, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wolfenberger-v-madison-illappct-1976.