A BROKER IS ENTITLED TO A COMMISSION WHEN.....

REBENWURZEL v. SWIECA, 2016 NY Slip Op 50068 - NY: Supreme Court 2016:

"It is well established that "[i]If negotiations between parties brought together by a broker are unproductive and the parties, in good faith, withdraw and abandon the proposed purchase and sale, a subsequent renewal of negotiations, followed by a sale at a lesser price, does not entitle the broker to a commission as the broker was not the procuring cause of the sale" (11 NY Jur 2d, Brokers § 166; see also Leipham, Inc. v Grosodonia, 21 AD2d 847, 847 [4th Dept 1964]). "In the absence of fraud or bad faith on the part of the sellers, the broker is not entitled to [a] commission on a sale negotiated after the term of [its] employment, even though the sale is negotiated with a buyer introduced to the seller by the broker" (Bashant v Spinella, 67 AD2d 1100, 1100 [4th Dept 1979]).

A real estate broker who initially called the property to the attention of the ultimate purchaser "does not automatically and without more make out a case for commissions simply because [it] initially called the property to the attention of the ultimate purchaser" (Hentze-Dor Real Estate, Inc., 40 AD3d at 815, quoting Greene v Hellman, 51 NY2d 197, 205-206 [1980]). "Indeed, there must be a direct and proximate link, as distinguished from one that is indirect and remote, between the bare introduction and the consummation'" (Hentze-Dor Real Estate, Inc., 40 AD3d at 816 [internal quotation marks omitted]; see also SPRE Realty, Ltd. v Dienst, 119 AD3d 93, 98 [1st Dept 2014]).

It is true that "in order to qualify for a commission, a broker need not have been involved in the ensuing negotiations or in the completion of the sale (Hentze-Dor Real Estate, Inc., 40 AD3d at 816; see also Buck v Cimino, 243 AD2d 681, 684 [2d Dept 1997]). However, 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'" (Hentze-Dor Real Estate, Inc., 40 AD3d at 816, quoting Dagar Group v Hannaford Bros. Co., 295 AD2d 554, 555 [2d Dept 2002]; see also Friedland Realty v Piazza, 273 AD2d 351, 351 [2d Dept 2000])."