Farnsworth v. Hemmer
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Contract brought by a real estate broker to recover a commission for his services in negotiating an exchange of land between the defendant and Fanny W. Cooper.
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Contract brought by a real estate broker to recover a commission for his services in negotiating an exchange of land between the defendant and Fanny W. Cooper. At the trial in the superior court, it appeared that the plaintiff was a real estate broker, and was employed by the defendant to negotiate the sale or exchange of certain real estate in Boston, and that through his aid an exchange thereof was effected with Mrs. Cooper for real estate owned by her, which she in like manner had employed the plaintiff to aid her in selling or exchanging, before his employment by the defendant; and that…
1Opinion of the CourtBigelow, C. J.
The principle on which rests the well settled' doctrine, that a man cannot become the purchaser of property for his own use and benefit which is intrusted to him to sell, is equally applicable when the same person, without the authority or consent of the parties interested, undertakes to act as the agent of both vendor and purchaser. The law does not allow a man to assume relations so essentially inconsistent and repugnant to each other. The duty of an agent for a vendor is to sell the property at the highest price; of the agent of the purchaser to buy it for the lowest. These duties are so…
2Cited by4 opinions
- Wilkinson v. McCulloughSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1900
- Crawford v. Surety Investment Co.Supreme Court of Kansas · 1914
- Pentino v. GalloSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1928
- Twiss v. HerbstSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1920