Cases - Bow's Emporium Ltd v AR Brett & Co Ltd

Record details

Name

Bow's Emporium Ltd v AR Brett & Co Ltd

Date

(1927)

Citation

44 TLR 194

Keywords

Estate agency - commission

Summary

The respondent agents were engaged by the appellant to find businesses for sale. The agents found a business that was likely to be sold, examined the premises, informed the appellant of their interview with the managing director, and handed over a copy of the balance sheet. Commission of 2% was agreed if the transaction went through. Subsequently, the appellant informed the agents that they had gone off the idea of purchasing the business. Despite this, the appellant negotiated for the purchase of the business through a person who was the auditor of the business for sale as well as the appellant's business. The agents claimed their commission.

The House of Lords held that, where an agent is employed to make inquiries about a particular business with a view to their employer's acquiring it, on the terms of their being paid a commission if business is transacted, and where the parties are brought together through their agency, they are entitled to commission, even where the actual purchase is ultimately effected through the intervention of another agent, provided that their services are really instrumental in bringing about the transaction. Viscount Dilhorne referring to a statement of Lord Chief Justice Erle in Green v Bartlett said:

'The question whether or not an agent is entitled to commission on a sale of property has repeatedly been litigated; and it has usually been decided that, if the relation of buyer and seller is really brought about by the act of the agent, he is entitled to commission although the actual sale has not been effected by him.'