Question of Fact Whether Initial Broker Entitled to Commission
The Second Department, over a dissent, determined there was a question of fact about whether a real estate broker was entitled to a commission because it generated a chain of circumstances that proximately led to the sale:
To prevail on its cause of action to recover a commission, the plaintiff is required to prove, inter alia, that it was “the procuring cause of the sale” … . “To establish that a broker was the procuring cause of a transaction, the broker must establish that there was a direct and proximate link, as distinguished from one that is indirect and remote, between the bare introduction and the consummation” … . However, “a broker . . . does not automatically and without more make out a case for commissions simply because he [or she] initially called the property to the attention of the ultimate purchaser” … . “Where, as here, the broker is not involved in the negotiations leading up to the completion of the deal, the broker must establish that [it] created an amicable atmosphere in which negotiations proceeded or that it generated a chain of circumstances that proximately led to the sale” … . Talk of the Town Realty v Geneve, 2013 NY Slip Op 05997, 2nd Dept 9-25-13