Wheeler v. Foy

Headnote

Fraud — principal and agent — dealing by real estate broker and its employees in property of client for their own personal profit —judgment for amount of commissions paid and for difference in price represented and that actually obtained.

Wheeler v. Foy, 217 App. Div. 782 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment, entered January 4,1927, upon an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second judicial department, reversing a judgment in favor of defendants entered upon a dismissal of the complaint by the court on trial at Special Term and directing judgment in favor of plaintiff against the appellants herein. Plaintiff, claiming to have had an interest in premises 163 West Seventy-second street, in the borough of Manhattan, city of New York, brought this action to set aside a contract for the sale thereof, and to set aside a deed conveying said premises pursuant to such contract, upon the ground that the brokers in said transaction had, by means of false and fraudulent representations made to plaintiff’s agent and attorney, procured such contract and conveyance for itself at an inadequate price, through the medium of the purchaser who was its dummy and who held the property for the brokers who subsequently sold it at an increased price. The Appellate Division held that the brokers and their employees dealt with plaintiff’s property for their own personal profit and directed judgment in favor of plaintiff for the amount of the commissions obtained upon the sale and for the difference between the sum represented to plaintiff as the purchase price and the price obtained from the subsequent sale.