Excerpt of judgement from ERA agent case

I have always admired how judges write judgements. No matter how complex the case is, written judgements have to persuade the reader of the rationale and logic of the decision and stand the test of time because all judgements set precedence in some way, unless refuted by a higher court.

Here, the presiding judge comments on the ethical responsibility of agents acting on behalf of their clients. I especially like the analogy at the end of the paragraph of a farmer (agent) of the chickens (client) negotiating with the fox.
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I am of the opinion that the Mike and Jeremy were ethically wrong and in breach of contract by reason of creating a conflict of interest between their client and themselves. Jeremy was the contractual link between the plaintiffs and the defendant, but Mike was person behind the scheme, and his position in the defendant rendered Jeremy’s breach even more reprehensible. The misconduct of Jeremy, Mike and the defendant in question is a matter of such importance that I feel bound to explain as simply and as briefly as I can the reasons as to why I think that the agents’ conduct was wrong so that no property agent can claim ignorance after this. When a property agent is engaged to sell or buy real property, he (the agent) is the agent of the person who engaged him. That other person is his principal. The property agent has professional as well as specialised expertise and knowledge of the market that the property owner or buyer may not have. When he is so engaged, the agent has a responsibility to act in his principal’s interests – not his own, or his friends’, or his relatives’ or his boss’s. When a person has been appointed an agent of another, he becomes an extension of that other and so far as his endeavours are for the benefit of his principal he cannot create benefits for himself or his friends without due disclosure. That is the law of agency. This responsibility that the agent bears is the foundation of the ethical rules and contractual principles that prohibit an agent from acting in conflict of interests, and reaping secret profits for himself or his friends. The relationship that an agent has with his principal is fiduciary in nature; that is to say, it is one founded in trust. When a farmer negotiates with the fox on behalf of the chicken for its safe passage the farmer cannot have a personal interest in the deal or the chicken might be doomed for it has given its trust to the farmer and placed its safety in his hands.