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43 Barb. 529

Doty v. Miller

New York Supreme Court

Decided February 6, 1865

New York Supreme Court · decided 1865-02-06

IQ) ICHARD SALTONSTALL, the assignor of the plainjLlb tiff, was employed by the defendant, through an agent, as broker, to negotiate the sale of a mortgage for $5,000, represented to be a “1st mortgage.” It was agreed that he was to receive $200, and the interest on the mortgage from 1st May to 11th June, this sum to cover his brokerage and all the expenses of searching the title, &c. The arrangement was afterwards fully ratified by the defendant himself.

Relies on Glentworth v. Luther

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1865-02-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently November 1922

15 state decisions — followed in 10 states

901865187018801890190019101920decided

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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¶1By the Court,

Sutherland, J.

¶2It would seem to follow from the decision of this court, in Glentworth v. Luther, (21 Barb. 145,) and of the common pleas in Holly v. Gos *530ling, (3 E. D. Smith, 262,) that the offer to prove that Hitchcock did not complete the purchase, in consequence of there being prior incumbrances, and of a defect in the title, was improperly overruled. These cases are to the effect that a broker or agent who undertakes to sell property for another for a certain commission, if he finds a purchaser willing to purchase at the price, has earned and can recover his commission, though the sale never was completed, if the failure to complete the sale was in consequence of a defect of title, and without any fault of the broker or agent.

[New York General Term,February 6, 1865.

¶3The evidence offered, then, in this case should have been received, for it went to show that it was’ not the fault of the plaintiff’s-assignor that the sale was not completed.

¶4The judgment should be reversed and a new trial ordered, with costs to abide the event.

¶5Ingraham, Clerke and Sutherland, Justices.]

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