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17 Wash. 209

Bishop v. Averill

Washington Supreme Court

Decided June 22, 1897

Washington Supreme Court · decided 1897-06-22

<p>WITNESS — CROSS-EXAMINATION — BROKERS — ACTION FOR COMMISSION — INSTRUCTIONS — SUFFICIENCY OF COMPLAINT — CONTRACTS.</p> <p>Where a defendant in an action has been called as a witness by the adverse party for the purpose of proving a matter, it is prejudicial error for the court to allow the defendant’s attorney,, under the guise of cross-examination, to go into the whole subject of his defense by propounding to the defendant questions which are leading, self-serving and suggestive.</p> <p>In an action by a broker to recover his commission for the sale of a mine which was to be paid him monthly until payment in full of his commission of $10,000, in proportion to a certain percentage of the gross earnings of the mine, which his principal was to receive upon the purchase price for a period of three years, unless sooner paid in full, and which contract between seller and purchaser had been abrogated and a new one entered into, under which payment of commission was refused, it is error for the court to charge in effect that plaintiff cannot recover unless the jury find that in the usual course of business the purchaser would have 'fully paid the purchase price and that plaintiff would have received the full amount of his commission but for the subsequent contract, since plaintiff had a right to have the contract continue in force the full period of three years and to receive his percentage of his principal’s share.</p> <p>In such an action, a charge that the whole question is one of fraud, and that unless defendants made the subsequent contract of sale with the dishonest and corrupt purpose of preventing plaintiff from getting his commission due under the original contract, he could not recover, is erroneous.</p> <p>After judgment, and in the absence of a demurrer, a complaint should be liberally construed.</p> <p>A party to a contract cannot disable himself from complying with any condition, and thereby derive any benefit or escape any liability.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed · Decided 1897-06-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently March 1936

14 state decisions

5018971900191019201930decided

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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¶1ON PETITION FOR RE-HEARING.

Gordon, J.

¶2The principal reason urged for a re-hearing of this case is that the appellant “ agreed to find a buyer,” and that “ it was plaintiff’s duty to effect a sale, and, having negotiated a contract of sale, it was his duty to see that the contract was performed.” Ve think the contract of May 3, 1895, became the substitute of all prior agreements on the subject of compensation. The cola-plaint is founded upon that contract. Paragraph 9 alleges that during the life of the original contract between respondents and Kerr, and without the knowledge of appellant, respondents entered into a new contract with Kerr, the effect of which was to cancel the former one in which appellant was interested. But it is argued that “ the record fails to disclose any evidence tending to show that the [old] contract would have been performed or that one dollar more would ever have been paid on it,” this contention being based upon the testimony of the agent for the purchaser.

¶3*223But counsel overlooks other testimony which tended to show that at the time of making the last contract between respondents and Kerr, there were some thirty or forty men employed at the mine, and that the output of the mine for the month preceding the making of such contract was one of the best they had ever had.

¶4Our attention is also called to the following provision of the agreement upon which the action is based:

“ It being understood that said commission is not to be paid unless the same is deposited in said bank under said agreement by said Kerr or his assigns.”

¶5And it is argued that Kerr’s failure to keep the contract and deposit the money absolved and released respondents from all liability to appellant.

¶6¥e think it does not follow that because Kerr failed to make the deposits provided in the old contract, such failure of itself terminated that contract. The provision by which time was made the essence was for the benefit of the respondents, and the right to enforce the contract belonged to the respondents, but the evidence in the case does not show that they ever attempted to do so. On the contrary, the evidence tended to show that during the lifetime of the contract, while the mine was being actually operated by the purchaser, the respondents voluntarily entered into a new agreement, under which, in disregard — as we think — of appellant’s right, the property was actually transferred to Kerr, and the old contract thereby terminated. This termination of the old contract resulted, not in consequence of the expiration of time, or of any provision contained in it, but solely because of the new contract which was made without appellant’s consent.

¶7After a careful consideration of the able argument accompanying respondents’ petition, and a painstaking reexamination of the entire record, a re-hearing is denied.

¶8Scott, O. J., and Anders and Dunbar, JJ., concur.

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