Agency - 1992

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This page lists 3 cases, and was prepared on 04 January 2012.

Peter Yates -v- Bullock [1992] EGLR 24
1992	Agency, Contract	Casemap 1 Citers
	Whether an introduction of a purchaser by an estate agent to the vendor was the "effective cause" of the transaction which ultimately takes place must be resolved by an examination of the facts as a whole.

Verderame -v- Commercial Union Assurance Co Plc [1992] BCLC 793; Times, 02 April 1992
2 Apr 1992 CA Balcombe LJ	Agency, Insurance, Company, Contract, Negligence, Damages	Casemap 1 Cites 1 Citers
	The insurance brokers, acting to arrange insurance for a small private limited company did not owe a duty in tort to the directors of that company personally. Where an action was brought in a tort and in breach of contract, damages could not be awarded on the tort where they were not available in contract.

Kelly -v- Cooper and Another [1993] AC 205; [1992] 3 WLR 936; [1993] ANZ Conv R 138
25 Nov 1992 PC Lord Browne-Wilkinson	Contract, Agency	Casemap 1 Cites 1 Citers
	There was a dispute between a client and an estate agent in Bermuda. The client sued the estate agent for damages for breach of duty in failing to disclose material information to him and for putting himself in a position where his duty and his self-interest conflicted. Held: It was appropriate to imply a term into the contract to the effect that the agent was entitled to act for other principals selling competing properties and to keep confidential the information obtained from each of those principals, even though that information might well have been material to the client. Estate agents have no general duty to disclose the details of another sale to their client. The existence and scope of the duties of an agent, fiduciary and otherwise, depend on the terms on which they are acting. The court was able to imply into an express contract of agency a term entitling an estate agent to act for numerous other competing principals selling similar properties and to keep confidential information received from each principal. It was known to the principal that the estate agent would be so acting in the course of its business. The effect of the implied term was to modify the normally strict fiduciary duties owed by an agent to the principal not to put himself into a position where his duty and interest conflicted, not to profit from his position (for example, by earning commissions from selling properties for rival principals) and to make disclosure of confidential information to the principal. Lord Browne-Wilkinson said: "In a case where a principal instructs as selling agent for his property or goods a person who to his knowledge acts and intends to act for other principals selling property or goods of the same description, the terms to be implied into such agency contract must differ from those where an agent is not carrying on such general agency business. In the case of estate agents, it is their business to act for numerous principals: where properties are of a similar description, there will be a conflict of interest between the principals each of whom will be concerned to attract potential purchasers to their property rather than that of another. Yet, despite this conflict of interest, estate agents must be free to act for several competing principals otherwise they will be unable to perform their function . . The scope of the fiduciary duties owed by the [estate agent] to the [client] (in particular the alleged duty not to put themselves in a position where their duty and their interest conflicted) are to be defined by the terms of the contract of agency."