Bob Kay Real Estate Pty Ltd v Amalgamated Television Service Pty Ltd

Bob Kay Real Estate Pty Ltd (the appellant) appealed to the New South Wales Court of Appeal against a decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The dispute concerned the appellant's claim for commission on the sale of a property, which the respondent, Amalgamated Television Service Pty Ltd, had purchased. The core of the disagreement lay in whether the appellant had effectively introduced the respondent to the property in a manner that entitled it to commission under the terms of the agency agreement.

The Court of Appeal was required to determine whether the appellant had established a causal connection between its introduction of the property to the respondent and the ultimate sale. Specifically, the court had to consider whether the introduction was the effective cause of the sale, or if the respondent's decision to purchase was independently motivated by factors that broke the chain of causation from the appellant's initial efforts. This involved an examination of the agency agreement and the conduct of the parties in the period leading up to the sale.

The Court of Appeal found that the appellant had not established that its introduction of the property was the effective cause of the sale. The court applied the principle that for an agent to be entitled to commission, their introduction must be the causa causans, or the decisive cause, of the sale. In this instance, the court concluded that the respondent had been introduced to the property on a prior occasion by another party, and that the appellant's subsequent involvement did not constitute a sufficiently direct or effective introduction that led to the purchase. The appeal was therefore dismissed.