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31 Md. 250

Richards v. Jackson

Court of Appeals of Maryland

Decided June 30, 1869

Court of Appeals of Maryland · decided 1869-06-30

This action was brought by the appellee against the appellant’s testator, in his lifetime, to recover for services rendered as a real-estate broker. The appellee was employed by Byrd to procure a purchaser for certain premises, No. 51 Courtland street, to be sold in fee simple for $5,000.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1869-06-30

How this case has been cited

Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently June 1983

1 federal appellate · 21 state decisions — followed in 11 states

401869187018801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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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Brent, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court.

¶2' We have very carefully considered the argument of the counsel for the appellee, in which he urges, with great zeal and ingenuity, that the case of Kimberly vs. Henderson § Lupton, 29 Md., 512, should be overruled. He has failed to convince us that there is any error in that de*253cisión. It is fully sustained by the authorities cited in the opinion, and, we think, correctly states the law.

(Decided 30th June, 1869.)

¶3It is there held that a broker, employed to sell real estate, must produce a person who ultimately becomes a purchaser, before he is entitled to his commissions. It is not sufficient that he should enter into an agreement to purchase, but he must actually purchase, by complying with the terms agreed upon, unless his failure to do so is occasioned by the fault of the vendor.

¶4In this case, as in Kimberly vs. Henderson & Lupton, the person introduced by the broker entered into an agreement to purchase, but he afterwards failed to consummate it.

¶5There can be no doubt that the title of the vendor was a valid one, and there is, therefore, no force in the position taken by the appellee, that the failure to consummate the purchase was occasioned through the fault of the vendor, who did not sell a good title.

¶6As, therefore, the appellee failed in introducing to Byrd a person who ultimately became the purchaser of the premises, which he had employed him to sell, there was error in the instruction of the Court below, and the judgment must be reversed. The reversal will be without procedendo, as the record discloses a case in which the appellee, who was plaintiff below, is not entitled to recover.

¶7Judgment reversed.

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