{
  "id": 8724224,
  "name": "Felix GREEN v. John D. TONEY et al",
  "name_abbreviation": "Green v. Toney",
  "decision_date": "1975-03-24",
  "docket_number": "74-346",
  "first_page": "853",
  "last_page": "856",
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      "reporter": "F.",
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      "reporter": "S.W.",
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    {
      "cite": "174 Mo. App. 215",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Mo. App.",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T15:16:07.797047+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "Byrd, J., not participating."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "Felix GREEN v. John D. TONEY et al"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "George Rose Smith, Justice.\nFelix Green appeals from a verdict and judgment awarding the two appellees, John D. Toney and Block Realty Company, a $10,000 real estate broker\u2019s commission for having procured the purchaser for a 20-acre tract of land sold by Green. Green contends primarily that he was entitled to a directed verdict, on the ground that there was no substantial evidence that the brokers\u2019 services contributed to the ultimate sale of the property. We agree with the trial judge\u2019s conclusion that the proof presented a jury question.\nThe facts are not essentially in dispute. In 1970 John B. May, the eventual purchaser of the land, was a contractor engaged in building apartments. Harold Dreyfuss, an associate or employee of Block Realty Company, had previously assisted May in finding property suitable for development. In the spring of 1970 May was in the market for an apartment-complex site. He turned to Dreyfuss for assistance.\nDreyfuss discussed the matter with Toney, another real estate broker, who was acquainted with Green and knew that Green owned a suitable 38-acre tract. On May 22, 1970, the parties signed an option agreement, pursuant to which May paid $1,000 for a six-month option to purchase 20 acres of Green\u2019s land for $100,000. The agreement obligated Green to pay a $10,000 commission to Toney and Block upon the exercise of the option.\nIt was May\u2019s practice to obtain an option upon a piece of land and then attempt to arrange financing for its purchase and development. In this instance he was unable to obtain financing within the six months. Shortly before the expiration of that period Green called May and learned that he would not be able to exercise the option.\nDreyfuss died before the expiration of the option. After that Toney continued his efforts to sell the property and found two prospective buyers. He testified that on January 7 or 8, 1972, he submitted an offer for the entire 38 acres that met all of Green\u2019s stipulations. Green, according to Toney, declined that offer for \u201cpersonal reasons.\u201d Green (who is himself in the real estate business) testified that if he had sold the property to Toney\u2019s prospect he would have paid a commission. Green was not asked to explain his personal reasons for rejecting the offer. Only four or five days later, on January 12, Green agreed to sell the 38-acre tract to May for $200,-000, which Green admits to have been his price all along for the whole tract. The appellees\u2019 $10,000 commission, however, is based only upon the twenty acres covered by the option.\nGreen, in the trial court and again here, disclaims liability upon the twofold basis that the sale was not completed within the six-month term of the option and that the brokers\u2019 efforts were not a factor in the final sale. As to the first aspect of the argument, May\u2019s failure to exercise his option is not conclusive. If May had bought the property five minutes after the expiration of the option the brokers\u2019 right to a commission could hardly be disputed, while if the purchase had been made five years later Green\u2019s position would be equally strong. Between the extremes there is a middle ground that falls within the jury\u2019s province.\nA parallel situation involving an option agreement was considered in Cole v. Crump, 174 Mo. App. 215, 156 S.W. 769 (1913). There the broker found a prospect who agreed to a 65-day option to purchase the land at $60 an acre, but that prospect did not actually buy the property until four months after the expiration of a one-year extension of the option, and then he paid an increased price. In holding that a jury question was presented the court declared that though the broker \u201cdid not personally obtain the extension of the option, and though he was not actively participating when the deal was finally closed, and though the final conveyance was made after the option had expired as an enforceable obligation, he is nevertheless entitled to his commissions if it appears to the satisfaction of the jury that he was the procuring cause of the sale, and defendants received the benefit of his services thereabout. This is true, even though defendants subsequently consummated the transation with the purchaser under a modified agreement with him whereby the original price of $60 per acre was advanced to $65.\u201d Another similar case, recognizing the broker\u2019s right to recover although the sale was made after the expiration of the option to purchase, is Freeman v. Kinston Mfg. Co., 233 F. 58 (4th Cir. 1916).\nAs to the second phase of Green\u2019s argument, there is substantial evidence to support the jury\u2019s conclusion that the brokers were the procuring cause of the sale to May. It is undisputed that the brokers first brought May into the picture, as a prospective buyer. The jury may have concluded that Green\u2019s unexplained rejection of one of the brokers\u2019 prospects, followed by his acceptance of another within a few days, was an effort to avoid the payment of a commission. Inasmuch as the appellees claim compensation only with regard to the original 20 acres, it is immaterial that the final sale included other property. Belyeu v. Hudson, 179 Ark. 657, 17 S.W. 2d 865 (1929); Chandler v. Gaines-Ferguson Realty Co., 145 Ark. 262, 224 S.W. 484 (1920).\nWe do not consider our decision in Johnson v. Knowles, 169 Ark. 1089, 277 S.W. 868 (1925), to be controlling. There the broker\u2019s prospect positively rejected the property at first and changed her mind later after she had occupied it as a tenant. Our conclusion was: \u201cThe sale in the present suit did not result from any act or course of conduct whatever of the plaintiff. \u201d No such unequivocal statement can be made upon the proof in the case at hand. The controlling issue was for the jury\u2019s determination.\nWe find no error in the trial court\u2019s instructions to the jury. Instruction 6 submitted the issues essentially as we have discussed them; there was no request that there be included an explanation of the possibility that the brokers had abandoned their efforts to sell the land to May. Green also complains of the court\u2019s refusal to give two of his proffered instructions. Both of them, however, suggested that the brokers could not recover unless May exercised his option to purchase within the six months allowed. We have already seen that such a contention is not sound.\nAffirmed.\nByrd, J., not participating.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "George Rose Smith, Justice."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "O. M. Young and Wayne W. Owen, for appellant.",
      "Wright, Lindsey & Jennings, for appellees."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Felix GREEN v. John D. TONEY et al\n74-346\n520 S.W. 2d 290\nOpinion delivered March 24, 1975\nO. M. Young and Wayne W. Owen, for appellant.\nWright, Lindsey & Jennings, for appellees."
  },
  "file_name": "0853-01",
  "first_page_order": 897,
  "last_page_order": 900
}