Broker - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition broker

Definition :

Broker [fr. broceur, Fr., a person who breaks into small pieces], (1) an agent employed to make bargains and contracts between other persons in matters of trade, commerce and navigation, by explaining the intentions of both parties, and negotiating in such a manner as to put those who employ him in a condition to treat together personally; (2) and, more commonly, an agent employed by one party only to make a binding contract with another.

There are various sorts of brokers now employed in commercial affairs, whose transactions form, or may form, a distinct and independent business. Thus, for example, there are exchange and money-brokers, stock-brokers, ship-brokers, and insurance-brokers, who are respectively employed in buying and selling bills of exchange, or promissory notes, railway scrip, goods, stocks, ships, or cargoes; or in procuring freights or charter-parties. By custom or usage brokers may become personally liable on contracts made by them on behalf of principals where the principal's name is not disclosed at the time of contract, see Pike v. Ongley, (1887) 18 QBD 708. The character of a broker is also sometimes combined in the same person with that of a factor. In such cases we should carefully distinguish between his acts in the one character and in the other, as the same rules do not always apply to each. See FACTOR. The Romans called brokers proxenet'.Brokers in the City of London were by 33 & 34 Vict. c. 60, and 47 Vict. c. 9, the London brokers Relief Acts of 1870 and 1884, relieved from the necessity of being admitted by the Court of Aldermen and other restrictions to which they were formerly subject.

As to fraudulent misappropriation by brokers, see (English) Larceny Act, 1916, especially s. 20.

The term 'broker' is also applied to the agent or 'bailiff' employed by a landlord to distrain. (See 57 Geo. 3, c. 93, s. 6, whereby every broker must give a copy of his charges to the person on whose goods he distrains, and DISTRESS.) County court bailiffs may be authorized by a county court judge to act as brokers to sell goods taken in execution under the County Court Act, 1934, s. 133.

For the purposes of s. 17 of the Finance Act, 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5, c. 36), a broker includes a general commission agent.

Means an agent who negotiates contracts of sale (as of real estate or securities) or other agreements (as insurance contracts or mortgages) between the parties for a fee or commission, Webster's Dictionary of Law, Indian Edn. (2005), p. 60.