Court Opinion

ID: 9722595
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:40:32.170009+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:37.568999
License: Public Domain

RICHARD H. EDELMAN, Justice,
concurring.
Because the Texas Real Estate License Act (the “Act”) provides, as a ground for *825revoking a real estate license, a license holder’s failure to specify a definite termination date in a contract, Northborough contends that the inclusion of such a date in a commission agreement is a statutory prerequisite to recovering a brokerage commission under the Act. Our decision in this case addresses only this specific contention and does not reach the separate issue (not asserted by Northborough) of whether a commission agreement is unenforceable as against public policy if it does not specify such a date.
In addition, preceding its revision in 1997, article 6573a, the predecessor to section 1101.652, stated as the corresponding ground for revocation, “failing to specify in a listing contract a definite termination date which is not subject to prior notice.” Act of Sept. 1, 1991, 72nd Leg., R.S., ch. 553, 1991 Tex. Gen. Laws 1913, repealed by Act of June 1, 2003, 77th Leg., R.S., ch. 1421, § 13, 2001 Tex. Gen. Laws 5020 (emphasis added). In 1997, this language was expanded to “failing to specify in a listing contract or in another contract in which the licensee agrees to perform services for which a license is required under this Act a definite termination date which is not subject to prior notice.” Act of Sept. 1, 1997, 75th Leg., R.S., ch. 839, 1997 Tex. Gen. Laws 2705, repealed by Act of June 1, 2003, 77th Leg., R.S., ch. 1421, § 13, 2001 Tex. Gen. Laws 5020 (emphasis added). Therefore, in 1994, when the Star lease was entered, it was not subject to the termination date requirement because it was not a listing contract.