Wallace v. Randol

Citations

• 6 Cal. Unrep. 150
• 54 P. 842
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 1040

Syllabus

<p>Brokers—Bills and Notes—Consideration.—Plaintiff Brokers were Engaged to sell certain property for a specified commission, one-half to be paid when the first installment of the price was paid, and the other half on the payment of the second installment. A sale was effected, it being agreed that the purchaser should be allowed one-half of the commissions. To settle the purchasers’ claim that they were entitled to one-half of the entire commission on the payment of the first installment, plaintiffs allowed the former to retain half the entire commission, and entered into an agreement with them which recited that the purchasers had received the full amount of their commission, and plaintiffs were to have all the commission due on the second installment; and that certain non-negotiable notes contemporaneously executed by the purchasers to plaintiffs for plaintiffs’ share of the commission on the first installment should be returned to the purchasers if the second payment “was completed.” The second installment was not paid, and plaintiffs sued the purchasers on the notes. There was nothing to show that plaintiffs had in any way prevented the payment of the second installment. Held, that, irrespective of whether there was a tender of the second installment by the purchasers, and a wrongful refusal of the sellers to accept it, which of itself would “earn” the commission, plaintiffs were entitled to recover on the notes, since they were based on a valuable consideration, and the second payment was not “completed.”1</p>