NRT New England, LLC v. Longo

Citations

• 207 Conn. App. 588

Syllabus

The plaintiff, a commercial property broker, sought to recover damages from the defendants for, inter alia, breach of contract in connection with the defendants' failure to pay a real estate commission. The defen- dants listed certain property with the plaintiff through its affiliated licensed sales associates, F and P, and executed an exclusive right to sell agreement for a term of one year. Although the defendants entered into a purchase and sale agreement with a buyer, E Co., during the term of the listing agreement, that deal was cancelled. As such, the property was not sold when the listing agreement expired, and the defendants then entered into an exclusive listing agreement with L, one of the defendants who held a real estate broker's license. Eventually, the defen- dants and E Co. closed on the sale of the property, and the plaintiff brought an action alleging breach of contract and violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (§ 42-110a et seq.), seeking to recover its commission pursuant to the listing agreement. Following a trial to the court, the trial court found for the plaintiff, and the defendants appealed to this court. Held: 1. The trial court properly refused to dismiss the plaintiff's action for lack of standing, the court having jurisdiction to consider the plaintiff's claims: contrary to the defendants' contention, the plaintiff's failure to strictly comply with the licensing requirements of the statute (§ 20-325a) govern- ing actions to recover real estate commissions did not implicate the court's subject matter jurisdiction, as certain amendments to § 20-325a, enacted after the Supreme Court's decision in McCutcheon & Burr, Inc. v. Berman (218 Conn. 512), permit recovery of a commission upon proof of substantial compliance with the requirements of the statute and that denial of a comission would be inequitable. 2. The trial court improperly concluded that the defendants had breached the listing agreement, the court having made a c