Preach

Appellant and plaintiff Jeff L. Preach doing business as Terrace Realty Company (plaintiff), appeals from a judgment entered in favor of respondents and defendants Monter Rainbow, Gray Family Corporation and Dudley Gray, Sr. (Gray) (collectively defendants) after their motion for summary judgment was granted.

In a fifth amended complaint (the complaint), plaintiff sued defendants for breach of contract, foreclosure of equitable mortgage and fraud. The gravamen of plaintiff’s complaint is that defendants breached a written agreement with plaintiff pursuant to which “plaintiff was employed by the defendants, and each of them, to procure a certain tenant, namely the Home Club, for a building to be constructed on real property owned by defendant Monter [Rainbow] .... As compensation for such services, the defendants, and each of them, agreed to pay plaintiff the broker’s commission described in the Agreement, upon the leasing by the Home Club of defendants’ premises.” Plaintiff contends that defendants breached the agreement by paying plaintiff $36,000 but failing and refusing to pay plaintiff a balance of $300,000 plus interest.

Defendants moved for summary judgment on the…