Kerfoot v. Steele

Citations

• 113 Ill. 610
• 1885 Ill. LEXIS 733

Syllabus

<p>1. Contract of sale of land—failure of conditions, as rendering the transaction a mere option to sell. Where a contract for the sale and conveyance of real estate was subject to a condition that if the vendors were unable, by reasonable diligence and expense, to make a good title within ninety days, the contract should be canceled and the deposit made by the purchaser returned to him, and the vendors were unable to make title within the time named, it was held, that the contract was no longer binding, and became only an option to sell.</p> <p>2. Purchase through a broker—■compensation of the broker—of the services of the broker having relation thereto. A person desirous of purchasing certain real estate, employed a real estate broker to negotiate the purchase, and agreed to pay him $3500 in consideration “for his services in connection with the purchase. ” The agent or broker procured a contract for the sale of the property to be executed by four persons, one of whom had only a life estate in a one-fourth part of the premises, the remainder being in her minor children, so that it became necessary to foreclose a mortgage on the property to pass the title to such fourth interest, which was afterward done. The broker, after having been paid the $3500, as agreed upon, sued his principal to recover for his services in consummating the title, rendered after the date of the contract of sale: Held, that the broker’s service did not end, under the contract, with the procuring of the agreement to sell, as the purchase was not then completed, and that he could not recover for subsequent services rendered, whereby the title was in fact acquired.</p> <p>3. So where, it being uncertain whether the sale could be closed, and the purchaser being desirous of renting the property, the broker secured a lease of it for him, which was canceled as soon as he acquired the title through the foreclosure, it was held, that the lease was made in the carrying out of the purpose of acquiring