Real estate brokers who introduce potential buyers to sellers and then get cut out in the negotiations, especially in Makati where the A-list buyers and sellers most likely know each other, can take refuge in a recent Supreme Court ruling.
The exploration company
Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp. , then controlled by stockbroker Roberto
Coyiuto Jr., has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay real estate broker
Tuscan Realty of Peter Capotosto over P2 million, plus interest, for the 1997
sale of Oriental Petroleum's two office units at the Corinthian Plaza in
Makati.
Oriental Petroleum had balked
at handing over to Tuscan Realty the three percent broker's commission,
claiming that Capotosto had nothing to do to close the sale with initial buyer
Gene de los Reyes of Gateway Holdings.
"That may be the case
but the reason why Tuscan Realty refrained from doing so was because of
Oriental Petroleum's advice that it would henceforth negotiate directly with
Gateway," the high tribunal said in its July 10 decision.
Even assuming that the advice
amounted to a revocation of the authority to sell, "it would (still) be
unfair not to give the broker the reward he had earned for helping the owner
find a buyer who would pay the price," said Justice Roberto Abad.
What complicated the
transaction for Tuscan Realty was that Gateway turned around after two months
and assigned its rights as buyer to lawyer Alonzo Ancheta, with whom Oriental
Petroleum finally executed a deed of absolute sale.
Still, "it cannot be
said that Oriental Petroleum found a direct buyer in Ancheta without the
intermediate contract to sell in favor of Gateway, Tuscan Realty's proposed
buyer," Abad said.
As to the claim that the
units were eventually sold for less than its asking price of P120,000 a square
meter, Oriental Petroleum was deemed to have waived the minimum price
requirement when it unilaterally brought down the price during the sale
negotiations without consulting its broker, the high court added.
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For full text of SC Decision,please click below :
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