Murphy, Buckley Keogh Ltd v Pye (Ir.) Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 30 July 1971
• Date: 30 July 1971
• Docket Number: [1969. No. 108 P.]
• Court: High Court

(H.C.)

Murphy, Buckley & Keogh Ltd

and

Pye (Ir.) Ltd

Commission - Plaintiff appointed sole agent for sale of defendant's property - Sale of property negotiated by defendant during currency of agency - Claim by plaintiff for commission - Implied term.

The plaintiffs were one of several firms of estate agents who had been interested in acting for the defendants in their attempts to sell their factory. On the 9th February, 1967, the eventual purchaser of the factory made a first tentative enquiry about the factory in a conversation with a director of the defendant company. On the next day the defendants appointed the plaintiffs to be sole agents of the defendants for the purpose of procuring a purchaser of the factory. It was agreed that the defendants could terminate the agency if they so wished and that the defendants would pay to the plaintiffs a commission if they succeeded in effecting a sale. However, the defendants negotiated a sale of the factory to the purchaser during the continuance of the plaintiffs' agency and without having informed them of such negotiations. The plaintiffs brought an action in the High Court in which they claimed damages for the defendants' failure to pay to the plaintiffs (a) the amount of expenses incurred by the plaintiffs pursuant to their agency and (b) the amount of such commission. At the trial the defendants admitted the plaintiffs' claim to such...