Cases - Midgley Estates Ltd v Hand

Record details

Name

Midgley Estates Ltd v Hand

Date

[1952]

Citation

2 QB 432

Keywords

Estate agency - commission

Summary

The plaintiffs were instructed to dispose of a business, the Railway Supper Bar, with commission to be paid:

'as soon as our purchaser shall have signed a legally binding contract effected within a period of three months from this date'.

The plaintiffs introduced a person who signed a binding contract to purchase and who paid a deposit. He was let into possession (for about 18 months) but the sale was never completed as he was unable to find the whole of the purchase price.

The Court of Appeal held that, according to the natural and reasonably clearly expressed meaning of the contract, the plaintiffs had earned their commission. It was unaffected by the subsequent fate of the contract of the sale. The words 'our purchaser', in the context, mean a person who contracts to buy, not a person who eventually completes the sale. The court added that there was no evidence that the purchaser was a man of straw. There was good reason for believing that he would be able to complete. His inability to do so was partly due to the fact that the defendant was not disposed to advance on mortgage a part of the price.