Cases - Drewery and Drewery v Ware-Lane

Record details

Name

Drewery and Drewery v Ware-Lane

Date

[1960]

Citation

3 AII ER 529

Keywords

Estate agency - commission

Summary

The defendant instructed the plaintiff to find a buyer for his leasehold house. The commission agreement provided that:

'I agree to pay you commission - when a prospective purchaser signs your 'purchase agreement' and I sign your 'vendor's agreement''.

A copy of each of these agreements was attached to the commission agreement, and both were expressed to be subject to contract. The plaintiff found a prospective purchaser who signed the 'purchaser's agreement' at an agreed price. The defendant signed the equivalent 'vendor's agreement'. Nine days later the defendant informed the plaintiff that he had sold the property to someone else as no progress had been made on the sale. The plaintiff claimed commission and the Court of Appeal awarded it. The terms of the commission agreement had been fulfilled, and the Luxor test of 'clear and unequivocal language' had been satisfied.

The term 'prospective purchaser' did not mean a person ready, willing and able to purchase as the defendant claimed. It simply means a person who has the question of buying the property in prospect or in contemplation and is prepared to make an offer.