Court Opinion

ID: 9522872
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:33:08.720923+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:04:11.654985
License: Public Domain

Wilkins, J.
(concurring, with whom Nolan, J., joins). In Capezzuto v. John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co., ante 399 (1985), five other Justices of this court accepted as a rule of law in this Commonwealth the principle that, in normal circumstances, a broker who produces a prospective buyer ready, willing, and able to purchase premises on the terms established by the seller with the broker is not entitled to a commission unless the seller executes a binding written agreement with the prospective buyer.1 This result was not compelled by our prior cases. It is probably inconsistent with the reasonable expectations of persons knowledgeable in the real estate field. Such a rule does protect the uninitiated prospective seller, a category in which neither the seller in this case nor in the Capezzuto case remotely belongs. The court has spoken, however, and it is probably more important that the rule of law in cases of this character be clear than what the rule in fact is. I concur in the result.

 There are exceptions. A seller will be liable for a commission in the absence of a binding written agreement (1) if the seller engages in certain bad faith dealing or other misconduct (Capezzuto v. John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co., supra at 404), or (2) if the broker and the seller agree, orally or in writing, that the seller will be liable for a commission if the broker produces a ready, willing, and able buyer whom the seller refuses to accept (id. at 404).