Whitcomb v. Sager

Citations

• 82 Wash. 572
• 144 P. 922

Syllabus

<p>Brokers — Contracts — Performance or Breach- — -Rescission — Evidence — Sufficiency. A broker who received a twelve months’ exclusive selling agency of a tract of platted land, on the condition that he go to Portland and open office for the purpose of selling the property, breaches his contract where, after two months in Portland, he closed the office and returned for economic reasons, the sales made not warranting the expense, and therefore his principals incurred no liability for damages in rescinding the contract.</p> <p>Same — Contracts — Validity—Rescission by Owners — Fraud — Evidence — Sufficiency. The evidence warrants a finding that illiterate owners of property were overreached and defrauded, where it appears that they made an oral agreement with a broker whereby the broker was to sell their land on a commission of 25.per cent, he to pay the costs of platting, etc., and they testified that the written contract as drawn, requiring the conveyance by them of a fourth interest to the broker, was falsely read over to them omitting that provision, and that the deed they executed therefor they believed to be a duplicate of the contract; since the inequality of the transaction, whereby they deeded a fourth interest in property of the value of $8,000, upon an express promise to plat and advertise it, and an implied promise to sell it, is apparent.</p> <p>Same — Contracts—Ratification by Owners. Illiterate owners of property, who have been induced by fraud to deed one-fourth of the property to the broker in advance, as his 25 per cent commission for making sales, without knowing that they had made such deed, did not ratify the transaction, where, as soon as they learned the full import of the paper transactions, they disavowed them.</p> <p>Same — Contract for Commissions — Breach—Measure of Damases. In an action by a broker against his principal for damages for breach of contract, tried upon the theory that the measure of damages was his actual loss sustained in