{
  "id": 5383832,
  "name": "B. A. Thorpe, Defendant in Error, v. Max Weber and David B. Weber, Copartners, trading as Weber Brothers, Plaintiffs in Error",
  "name_abbreviation": "Thorpe v. Weber",
  "decision_date": "1914-12-31",
  "docket_number": "Gen. No. 19,242",
  "first_page": "2",
  "last_page": "4",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "191 Ill. App. 2"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
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    "ocr_confidence": 0.516,
    "pagerank": {
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      "percentile": 0.3078025012269055
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    "sha256": "08e032564bd10ce64e836bd354c64888e7298d769cbd890f81ec1107d99776ff",
    "simhash": "1:415c2121094cf074",
    "word_count": 737
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T16:18:11.463405+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "B. A. Thorpe, Defendant in Error, v. Max Weber and David B. Weber, Copartners, trading as Weber Brothers, Plaintiffs in Error."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Justice Duncan\ndelivered the opinion of the court.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Justice Duncan"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "A. L. Weber, for plaintiffs in error; George F. Ort, of counsel.",
      "Henry Horner, for defendant in error; Arnold Heap, of counsel."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "B. A. Thorpe, Defendant in Error, v. Max Weber and David B. Weber, Copartners, trading as Weber Brothers, Plaintiffs in Error.\nGen. No. 19,242.\n(Not to be reported in full.)\nError to the Municipal Court of Chicago; the Hon. John R. Newcomer, Judge, presiding. Heard in the Branch Appellate Court . at the March term, 1913.\nAffirmed.\nOpinion filed December 31, 1914.\nStatement of the Case.\nAction by B. A. Thorpe against Max Weber and David B. Weber, trading as Weber Brothers, to recover for procuring a tenant for a hotel in Chicago for a period of ten years, at an annual rental of $3,600. Plaintiff\u2019s claim was for five per cent, of the first year\u2019s rental and one per cent of the last eight years \u2019 rental. Plaintiff recovered a judgment for $468. To reverse the judgment, defendants prosecute error.\nThe facts show that defendants sent out circulars and that plaintiff received one of them, which was signed \u201cWeber Bros., 1924 State St.\u201d The circular contained these words:\n\u201cFor rent, the following:\n* * * Columbus Hotel, 1840 Wabash Ave. 60 Boom Steam Heat, $4,200 per annum.\nWill pay real estate board commissions for good tenants.\u201d\nThereafter plaintiff answered the circular by letter to defendants saying, in substance, that Mr. Deffler of plaintiff\u2019s office had interested Messrs. Schultz and Field, of the Inter-Ocean Hotel, and that they had made a substantial offer for a lease on the property, and asked defendants to kindly protect him with reference to the regular real estate board rate of commission and he would give the prospective lessees proper attention. Plaintiff then sent Deffler to defendants to confer with them and they accepted his services, and by his efforts the lease in question was consummated and signed by Field, one of the parties mentioned in defendant in error\u2019s letter.\nIt appeared that plaintiff was duly licensed as a real estate broker but that Deffler was not, and that a city ordinance of Chicago provided as follows:\n\u201cAny person employed by a person or corporation licensed as a broker under the provisions of this chapter who shall himself engage in the business or act in the capacity of a broker, shall notwithstanding the fact of such employment be amenable to all the provisions of this chapter and shall be required to take out a broker\u2019s license.\u201d\nDefendants urged as ground for reversal of the judgment: (1) Because the contract for commissions was made by defendants and one Mr. Deffler, an unlicensed broker, on his own behalf, or with him as the agent of plaintiff, and that Mr. Deffler made the entire negotiations with the tenant, Stanley Field, and that the contract was against the provisions of the city ordinances and void; (2) that plaintiffs\u2019 claim is based upon a quantum meruit and that there is no evidence to sustain such a claim; (3) that the evidence showed a contract with Deffler that the commission for obtaining the tenant should be for the exact sum of $200.\nAbstract of the Decision.\n1. Bbokebs, \u00a7 4 \u2014when ordinance does not require license of broker's employees. A city ordinance requiring a license to be taken out by an employee of a broker where he shall himself engage in the business or act in the capacity of a broker, held not to apply to mere employees of brokers, though they are paid for their work a certain portion or per cent, of the commissions.\n2. Bbokebs, \u00a7 70*\u2014when suit for commissions not based on quantum meruit. A suit for brokerage commissions held not based, on a quantum meruit count, where the statement of - claim simply discloses that plaintiff is suing for \u201creal estate board commissions\u201d promised in a circular letter, and specifies the claim further by stating the rental named in the lease and that the claim is for certain percentage of the annual rentals.\n3. Appeal and eebob, \u00a7 1506 \u2014when refusing to permit cross-examination harmless error. Error of court in refusing to permit defendants to cross-examine some of plaintiff\u2019s witnesses held harmless where the witnesses were thereafter thoroughly examined by defendants with reference to all matters inquired of them by plaintiff.\nA. L. Weber, for plaintiffs in error; George F. Ort, of counsel.\nHenry Horner, for defendant in error; Arnold Heap, of counsel.\nSee Illinois Notes Digest, Vols. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number."
  },
  "file_name": "0002-01",
  "first_page_order": 46,
  "last_page_order": 48
}