Court Opinion

ID: 9578095
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:41:25.264357+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:22:37.169975
License: Public Domain

Stukes, Chief Justice
(concurring).
*130I agree with the result of the opinion of Mr. Justice Taylor that the appellant Jeffcoat is bound by his contract of purchase, upon the ground that he is, as a matter of law, barred by his negligence from asserting the misrepresentation. 23 Am. Jur. 960, Fraud and Deceit, Sec. 155; 55 Ibid 553, Vendor and Purchaser, Sec. 79; Annotation, 174 A. L. R. 1010, 1028; Shuler v. Williams, 112 S. C. 349, 99 S. E. 819. The principle is applicable to other contract obligations, as in O'Connor v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, 217 S. C. 442, 60 S. E. (2d) 884.
The other point of the appeal, which is that of Fulmer that he (or his firm, who were the brokers) is (are) entitled by local custom to one-half of the forfeited earnest money as commission, cannot be sustained. The custom was proved but the law, by the weight of authority, is to the contrary, in the absence of controlling contract provision. Annotation, 9 A. L. R. (2d) 495.
Moreover, to permit recovery by the broker of a commission in this case would allow him to profit from his wrong.
The general rule as to when and under what conditions a broker has earned his commission, despite the failure of the purchaser to consummate the contract, is clearly stated in Hamrick v. Cooper River Lumber Co., 223 S. C. 119, 74 S. E. (2d) 575. However, here the purchaser’s failure to perform the contract was due solely to the misrepresentation of the property to him by the broker’s employee. Indeed, the misrepresentation was admitted by the latter in testimony. In fairness to him, it should be said that it was innocently made, he relying upon the representation made to him by another broker, a Mrs. McElveen, with whom respondent had listed the property and who associated the brokers who found the purchaser and procured the contract. Mrs. Mc-Elveen was present at the trial but did not testify. This wrong of the broker, although witlessly done, bars him from claiming any commission on the unconsummated sale; hence he is not entitled to any portion of the forfeited earnest money.
Legge and Moss, JJ., concur.