Cases - Brian Cooper & Co v Fairview Estates (Investments) Ltd

Record details

Name

Brian Cooper & Co v Fairview Estates (Investments) Ltd

Date

[1987]

Citation

1 EGLR 18

Keywords

Estate agency - commission

Summary

The defendant landlord wrote to the plaintiffs stating that they were:

'... pleased to offer a full scale letting fee to your company should you introduce a tenant by whom you are unable to be retained and with whom we have not been in previous communication and who subsequently completes a lease'.

Later the defendants agreed to pay double commission on similar terms. The plaintiffs introduced a company, but that company then decided it did not need the property. Subsequently, the company altered its plans and was re-introduced to the property through its own retained agents. The plaintiffs played no part in this and it was agreed that they were not the effective cause. Nevertheless, the plaintiffs claimed commission as they had satisfied the requirements of the commission agreement. The defendants claimed that there was an implied term to the effect that the agents had to be an (or the) effective cause. The Court of Appeal held that the language of the clause was inconsistent with such an implication, and there was no necessity in this case to imply a term. The clause worked perfectly satisfactorily from a developer/landlord point of view.

[Note: By the time the case came to court, Fairview had wisely altered their commission terms to include the requirement of effective cause.]