The Second Department determined the motion to set aside the jury verdict finding plaintiff was entitled to a broker’s commission for the sale of defendant’s property should have been granted. The court explained the relevant criteria:
To prevail on a cause of action to recover a commission, the broker must establish (1) that it is duly licensed, (2) that it had a contract, express or implied, with the party to be charged with paying the commission, and (3) that it was the procuring cause of the sale … . “[T]he duty assumed by the broker is to bring the minds of the buyer and seller to an agreement for a sale, and the price and terms on which it is to be made, and until that is done his right to commissions does not accrue” … . 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” … . 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'” … . * * *
Here, there was no valid line of reasoning which could have led to the conclusion that the plaintiff was the procuring cause of the sale. Douglas Elliman, LLC v Silver, 2016 NY Slip Op 00675, 2nd Dept 2-3-16
REAL ESTATE (BROKER NOT ENTITLED TO COMMISSION)/BROKERS, REAL ESTATE (NOT ENTITLED TO COMMISSION)/COMMISSIONS, REAL ESTATE (BROKER NOT ENTITLED TO COMMISSION)