North Carolina, )
* In the Superior Court
Henderson County )
E.B. Harris, Plaintiff,
vs.
David A. Thompson,
George
COMPLAINT.
Willet Van Ness & William
Redmond Cross, Trustees, Defendants.
The plaintiff, complaining of the
defendants above named, alleges That at the times hereinafter mentioned
the
1. defendants were seized and possessed of several large and
valuable mountain and timber tracts of land situate in the counties of
Rutherford, Polk and Henderson in the State of North Carolina, which the
were desirous of selling, and which under the deeds and conveyances to
them they had the power to sell and convey; that being so seized and
possessed and being so desirous to sell said lands they, through their
properly constituted agentsnd [sic] attorney entered into an agreement
with the plaintiff that if he, the plaintiff, could secure for them a
purchaser for said lands they would pay him for his service in that
respect a sum equal to the difference between two and twenty-five
hundredths ($2.25)Dollars per acre and the amount per acre for witch
said sale could or might be made. This agreement was fully made with the
defendants through their agent aforesaid and the plaintiff sometime
during the year 1904 or 1905.
2. In pursuance of the said agreement and in compliance with his obligations in that respect, the plaintiff forthwith began efforts and negotiations to secure a purchaser and to bring about a sale for the said lands, and after some time through his correspondents and other persons whom he had interested in the matter he did succeed in securing a purchaser for the said labds [sic], to whom he offered the said lands, which the defendants subsequently sold to the purchaser so secured by the plaintiff or his associates, at the price of Three ($3.50) and fifty hundredths Dollars per acre; and after some negotiations said purchaser offered to pay for the said lands the sum of Thirty Thousand Dollars, which offer was accepted by the plaintiff and the defendants duly notified thereof through their duly constituted agent, but before the transaction was closed by the plaintiff and proposed purchaser, the defendants, through their said agent and without the consent and over the protest of the plaintiff, took charge of the matte and closed it on or about the 5th day of September, 1905, at the pretended price of Two and Fifty one hundredths, ($2.50) Dollars per acre in fraud of the rights of this plaintiff; and the said defendants have received a large part of the purchase money and have the balance secures according to their contracts of salt so brought about through the efforts of the plaintiff, as aforesaid.
3. That the amount of land so sold and conveyed, as aforesaid, amounts to ninty [sic] three hundred and seventy six (9376) acres and the purchase money alleged to have been actually paid therefore amount to Twenty-three thousand, four hundred and forty ($23,440) Dollars; and that there is now due the plaintiff for and on account of the contract and agreement between him and and the defendants for the sale of the said lands, as set forth in the first paragraph of this Complaint, the sum of Eight Thousand, Nine Hundred and four ($8,904) Dollars, this amount being the difference between $2.25 per acre and the amount which the plaintiff should have received under the sale to the purchaser so brought about and secured by the plaintiff. But the defendants have refuse to pay to the plaintiff the sum so due, or any other sum for his service to them under the contract and agreement aforesaid.