Cases - Chamberlain & Willows v Rose

Record details

Name

Chamberlain & Willows v Rose

Date

(1924)

Citation

unreported; summarised at [1930] 1 KB 261

Keywords

Estate agency

Summary

The defendant cinema owner put his property in the hands of the plaintiff estate agent on the following terms:

'The property to be left solely in your hands for sale from this date until the auction and for a further period of three months.'

The defendant sold the cinema himself. The court held that no commission had been earned, because the agent had not found a buyer. But it also held that the defendant was in breach of contract as the words 'solely in your hands' meant that the agent had the sole right to sell. The court remitted the case to the county court, observing that damages for breach might be far less than the commission as the plaintiffs might not have been able to sell the property, or might have got only a small sum for it.