LJ Hooker Ltd v WJ Adams Estates Pty Ltd [1977] HCA 13

High Court of Australia Barwick C.J. Gibbs, Stephen, Jacobs and Murphy JJ. LJ Hooker Ltd v WJ Adams Estates Pty Ltd [1977] HCA 13

ORDER Appeal dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

1977, March 4 Barwick C.J.

The appellant sued the respondent in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on three counts:

(1) that the respondent under a contract of agency promised to pay commission to the appellant upon its introduction of a person willing and able to purchase the respondent's property in Pitt and George Streets in the City of Sydney ("the property");

(2) that under an implied contract, the respondent promised to pay one half of the commission otherwise payable upon a sale of the property to a single purchaser if the person to whom the appellant introduced the property became a joint venturer with the person who signed the contract to purchase the property;

(3) (added by amendment) that the respondent promised to pay commission at a rate referentially agreed between them upon the appellant introducing to the respondent a person who became the purchaser of the property on terms acceptable to the respondent.

The learned primary judge found that neither the first nor second count was made out and rejected each. No cross-appeal has been lodged against these findings. The matter thus proceeded before the Court of Appeal Division of the Supreme Court upon the third count alone. So it has proceeded, as indeed it must, before this Court on appeal from the Supreme Court.

The primary judge found for the appellant on the third count for the full amount claimed. He did so because he concluded that the appellant was an effective cause of the sale of the property in fact made by the respondent. In this he was substantially influenced by his view of the case of Burchell v. Gowrie and Blockhouse Collieries Ltd. [9] .