Cases - Blake & Co v Sohn

Record details

Name

Blake & Co v Sohn

Date

[1969]

Citation

3 AII ER 123

Keywords

Estate agency - commission

Summary

The plaintiffs were instructed by the defendant vendors 'to do their best to introduce a purchaser for the property at £75,000 or to obtain an offer' in respect of a hotel with land at the back. The defendants did not own the land at the back, but claimed that they had a squatter's title. The plaintiffs introduced somebody who entered into a contract. However, this person successfully applied for rescission of the contract on the basis of a misrepresentation about the squatter's title.

Relying on dicta in Luxor v Cooper, the plaintiffs claimed that a purchaser had been introduced when a binding contract had been made. Their answer to the defendants' response that no purchase had ever taken place because the contract was rescinded, was that this was the defendants' fault; they had not been able to provide good title.

The judge held that fault of the vendor means willful refusal or deceit. The defendants' inability to complete was the result of an honest mistake. Therefore no commission was due.