John Trident was a real estate agent working for Quantum Real Estate Ltd.His sister-in-law Jennie was looking for some income property, and after some searching John Trident entered into a deal with Mr. and Mrs. Lipton, persuading them to list their property for sale with him and subsequently presented an offer to purchase from his sister-in-law, who used her maiden name (P. Hayes) so that the sellers would not know that he was related to the purchaser.Before the deal was to close, the Liptons discovered the relationship between the agent and the purchaser and refused to go through with the deal.John Trident sued for his commission and his sister-in-law sued for specific performance.

Explain the arguments that are available to the sellers in response to these claims.How would your answer be affected by the knowledge that the sister-in-law of John Trident had disclosed to him that she was willing to pay between $250,000 and $300,000 for the property, and in negotiations that followed this was not disclosed to the sellers?In fact, the first offer made by his sister-in-law was only $270,000.The sellers eventually took $285,000 not knowing that the purchaser was willing to go to $300,000.The actual fair market value of the property was determined to be $285,000.