Case ID: nys_22/html/0744-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "EHRLICH, C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

LEVY v. RUFF.
    (City Court of New York, General Term.
    March 17, 1893.)
    Real-Estate Agent—Commissions—Financial Ability op Pubohasbb.
    The right of a real-estate agent to his commission on procuring a purchaser for his principal’s land cannot be defeated by showing that the purchaser had no ready money in bank at the time the contract was entered into, since ability at the time of closing the contract is all that is required, and the burden of proof in this respect rests on the principal.
    Appeal from trial term.
    Action by Simon Levy against Caroline Buff for brokerage on sale of land belonging to defendant. From a judgment entered on a verdict in plaintiff’s favor, defendant appeals.
    Affirmed.
    Argued before EHRLICH, C. J., and McGOWÜSf, J.
    Fromm e Bros., for appellant.
    D. Leventritt, for respondent.
   EHRLICH, C. J.

The action is to recover brokerage on the sale of a piece of real estate belonging to the defendant. The plaintiff proved that he was a broker, and employed as such by the defendant to effect a sale of her property; that he introduced to her as a purchaser one Fine, with whom she entered into a written contract to convey. The writing is informal in its character, yet intelligently contains the price and terms of sale. That the plaintiff was the procuring cause is conceded, and the proofs sufficiently show that the failure to carry out the sale was owing to the acts of the defendant, and not of the purchaser. But¿ aside from this, the purchaser produced proof satisfactory to the defendant, for she entered into a contract of sale to him. The broker’s duty ended here, and his right to brokerage became complete. The .jury found for the plaintiff, and the evidence sufficiently sustains their finding. The exceptions are without merit. They relate to what amount of money the purchaser had in banks, and in what banks. A purchase by a solvent purchaser cannot be defeated by showing the want of ready money at the time of the contract. Ability at the time of closing the contract is all that is required.' There was no effort to investigate the general financial standing or ability of the purchaser, but merely to ascertain what money he had in bank at the time the contract was made, and the onus of proving want of ability was on the defendant. Hart v. Hoffman, 44 How. Pr. 168. The real difficulty in carrying out the contract was the inability of the defendant to convey, because, as she put it, “the will was so writ that she could not carry it out.” ¿The broker was not responsible for the difficulty. Upon the entire case the verdict was right, and the judgment entered on it should be affirmed, with costs.