Metzenbaum

Victor Metzenbaum (Metzenbaum or appellant), plaintiff in the underlying action for recovery of a commission as a mortgage loan broker, appeals from the judgment entered against him and in favor of R.O.S. Associates, Dwight E. Richardson, William H. O’Neill III, Larry A. Simmons, Sam Y. Shimoza, and John Sandling (collectively respondents) after the court granted respondents’ motion for a directed verdict.

In this appeal we are asked to decide whether a mortgage loan broker may recover the commission which a property owner agreed to pay him under an exclusive brokerage contract when: (1) the owner breached the contract by entering into a similar agreement with another broker and accepting a loan through him; (2) the first broker was unaware of the breach until after the expiration of his contract; and (3) there was no evidence that the first broker either obtained or could have obtained an acceptable loan within the contract period. We conclude that when the owner’s breach could not possibly have prevented the broker’s performance within his contract period, the broker has failed to show that the owner’s breach proximately caused him any damage and thus may not recover…