Roberts

Appeal from a judgment after demurrer to the second amended complaint was sustained without leave to amend.

The question presented is whether or not a licensed real estate loan broker may recover commissions shared with another who fraudulently represented himself as holding powers of attorney from lenders, but was not licensed to act as a broker or salesman under the Real Estate Act.

The complaint alleged defendant informed plaintiff that he had power of attorney to irrevocably commit lenders to make loans secured by real property and that defendant personally guaranteed these loans to his principals. Defendant told plaintiff that all of his clients desired to net 10 per cent per annum interest on their loans, the legal limit permitted by law, and did not want to diminish their returns by compensating for the considerable accounting and tax service that he performed in connection with said loans; that since his activities did not require licensing as a real estate broker plaintiff could properly compensate defendant for such services out of commissions earned by plaintiff in obtaining the loans on behalf of his client borrowers; that defendant would supply plaintiff with a…