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119 Va. 192

Perrow v. Rixey

Supreme Court of Virginia

Decided June 8, 1916

Supreme Court of Virginia · decided 1916-06-08

<p>Error to a judgment of the Circuit Court of Culpeper county, in an action of assumpsit. Judgment for the defendent. Plaintiff assigns error.</p>

Relies on Hunt v. Rousmanier's Administrators · Cummins v. Beavers · Hanger v. Commonwealth

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1916-06-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently April 1965

6 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Whittle, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2Plaintiff in error brought assumpsit against the defendant in error to recover commission upon the fol*193lowing paper: “I hereby agree to sell that portion of my ‘Richlands’ farm to the west of the fence running from the county road to Rouss’ farm to any purchaser brought tó me by B. F. Perrow, provided that said land nets me twenty-five dollars ($25.00) per acre cash and provided further that said sale is consummated within thirty days from date. This agreement made this 24th of July, 1914. John S. Rixey.”

¶3There was a verdict and judgment for the defendant, to which judgment this writ of error was granted.

¶4The paper upon its face is unilateral, and not under seal, and does not express that it was made upon a valuable consideration. Nor is it “coupled with an interest,” so far as Perrow is concerned. His compensation was wholly contingent upon his effecting a consummated cash sale of the land in excess of $25.00 per acre within thirty days from the date of the contract.

¶5We are of opinion that the evidence shows that the principal, in good faith, revoked the agency of the broker before he found a purchaser. In these circumstances, the recognized general rule is that the principal, at pleasure, may recall the agent’s authority.

¶6Walker, in his late work, “The Law of Real Estate Agency,” at sec. 15, observes: “ordinarily, unless a contract of employment is equpled with an interest or is given for a valuable consideration, the authority of the agent may be terminated at will by giving notice, subject only to the requirement that it be given in good faith, and before the broker finds a purchaser.”

¶7The text is sustained by decisions of courts of last resort throughout the Union, and the rulings of this court in analogous eases on option contracts are in harmony with the prevailing doctrine. Cummins v. Beavers, 103 Va. 230, 48 S. E. 841, 106 Am. St. Rep. 881, 1 Ann. Cas. 986; Watkins v. Robertson, 105 Va. *194269, 54 S. E. 33, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1910; Stearns v. Goad, 111 Va. 834, 69 S. E. 1101; Carter v. Hook, 116 Va. 812, 83 S. E. 386; See also Mechem on Agency (2nd ed.), secs. 563, 566, 567.

¶8In the case of Brown v. Pfarr, 38 Cal. 550, a ease very similar to the case in judgment, the court said: “We are unable to perceive how, under any circumstances, a mere limit as to the time allowed for the performance of a contract by agency to sell land can be construed into an agreement on the part of the principal not to revoke the power.”

¶9So also, the authorities dispose of the contention that this contract was irrevocable because “coupled with an interest.”

¶10In Fitch on Real Estate Agency, p. 48, it is said: “By a power coupled with an interest is meant that the agent or attorney has an interest in the land itself, as distinguished from the proceeds of it.” Walker on the Law of Real Estate Agency, sec. 16; Marshall, C. J., in Hunt v. Rousmanier, 8 Wheat. 174, 5 L. Ed. 589.

¶11The conclusion having been reached that the defendant in error, Rixey, was within his rights in revoking the agency of the plaintiff in error, before he produced a purchaser, it is not necessary to consider objections to the instructions, since, properly, there could have been no other result than a verdict for the defendant. Hanger v. Com’th, 107 Va. 872, at 875, 60 S. E. 67; Fields v. Virginian R. Co., 114 Va. 558, 77 S. E. 501.

¶12The case needs no further discussion, and the judgment is affirmed.

¶13Affirmed.

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