AGREEMENT PROVIDED THAT $50,000 COMMISSION WAS DUE FROM BUYER ON SALE
When the D.S. sought to acquire a property in Babylon, he allegedly signed a contract with R.M.S., a licensed broker who was associated with All Island Estates Realty Corp., agreeing to pay $50,000 commission. When that obligation went unpaid, litigation ensued in the Nassau County Supreme Court.
After All Island was awarded $50,910.21, D.S. appealed.
On its review of the matter, the Appellate Division, Second Department, noted that for a broker to prevail in a commission dispute, the following elements must be established: “(1) that it is duly licensed, (2) that it had a contract, express or implied, with the party to be charged with paying the commission, and (3) that it was the procuring cause of the sale.”
Since All Island ticked off all the boxes, the Appellate Division, Second Department, could discern no error here. It did not agree with D.S.’s position that “essential” contract terms were missing, or that R.M.S. wasn’t the “procuring cause” of the deal, because R.M.S negotiated the property’s sale price for the defendant, and “set in motion the chain of circumstances that resulted in the sale.”
He clearly couldn’t have brokered a better result ….
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DECISION