PRINCIPAL AND AGENT-Continued.
the scope and course of the servant's employment and in furtherance of the master's interests," and committed no errot in refusing plaintiff's prayer that if the assault was com- mitted by the servant while engaged in the performance of his duties, the company was, in any event, responsible. Roberts v. Railroad, 176.
Plaintiff's services, consisting in looking after mining property, paying the taxes and listing it and keeping trespassers off, constitute no lien on the property which followed it into a purchaser's hands, and where plaintiff had no personal claim against such purchaser, who acquired his interest after the suit had been commenced, the motion of nonsuit as to the latter should have been allowed. Morrison v. Mining Co., 250. In an action to recover the value of services rendered, where it was admitted that plaintiff was defendant's agent in caring for his property, and there being proof of services performed and knowingly received, and of their value, the law implies a promise by defendant to pay a fair and reasonable com- pensation therefor, and it was not necessary for plaintiff to allege or prove a special contract for the payment of his services. Ibid.
When one deals with an agent, it behooves him to ascertain cor- rectly the scope and extent of his authority to contract for and in behalf of his alleged principal. Bank v. Hay, 326. The principal is liable upon a contract duly made by his agent with a third person: (1) When the agent acts within the scope of his actual authority; (2) when the contract, although un- authorized, has been ratified; (3) when the agent acts within the scope of his apparent authority, unless the third person has notice that the agent is exceeding his authority. Ibid. The principal may also, in certain cases, be estopped to deny that a person is his agent and clothed with competent authority or that his agent has acted within the scope of the authority which the nature of the particular transaction makes it necessary for him to have. Ibid.
The authority to draw, accept or endorse bills, notes and checks will not readily be implied as an incident to the express authority of an agent. It must ordinarily be conferred ex- pressly, but it may be implied if the execution of the paper is a necessary incident to the business, that is, if the purpose of the agency cannot otherwise be accomplished. Ibid.
Where the letters, upon which the plaintiff bank relied as author-
ity to an agent to make the draft which it cashed, show that
PRINCIPAL AND AGENT-Continued.
the alleged authority to draw was nothing more than private instructions by the principal to his agent as to how he should conduct this part of the business, and were not to be used as a basis of credit to the agent, the Court properly nonsuited the plaintiff. Ibid.
The principle that knowledge of the agent will be imputed to the principal does not apply where the question is as to the re- sponsibility for instituting a criminal prosecution, dependent in part on what the principal understood the trade to be which the agent had made, from information reasonably relied on by him, nor does the principle of imputed knowledge apply when it would be against the interest of the agent to make the dis- closure. Stanford v. Grocery Co., 419.
While a corporation may contract under an assumed and fictitious name and be bound on the contract, the president or other managing officer, without any authority whatever, cannot bind the corporation by endorsing, in his own name, or the name of some firm of which he may be a member, a note payable to himself for which the corporation received no benefit or con- sideration. Bank v. Hollingsworth, 520.
PROBABLE CAUSE. See "Questions for Jury"; "Attachment"; "Evi- dence."
When owing to the illness of the trial Judge the cause could not proceed to judgment, and when, without default or laches on the part of the defendant, she had her motion continued and moved for a new trial upon exceptions reserved at the next term, when judgment was pronounced against her, from which she appealed, the appeal was lost under Revisal, sec. 534; but a new trial will be granted, as the loss resulted from an act of God, which she could not foresee, and the consequences of which she could not avoid. State v. Robinson, 620.
A notice by Township Trustees to a land-owner that they had con- demned a strip of his land to widen the public highway was not the beginning of legal proceedings, under Laws 1901, ch. 50, sec. 5, as amended by Laws 1905, ch. 770, sec. 1 (2), where the taking was under the right of eminent domain and was not contested. In re Wittkowsky's Land, 247.
In a proceeding by a land-owner under Laws 1901, ch. 50, sec. 5, as amended by Laws 1905, ch. 770, sec. 1 (2), to assess dam- ages for land taken for highway purposes, notice of the pro- ceeding is required to be given to the Township Trustees and County Commissioners under the "law of the land." Ibid. Laws 1901, ch. 50, sec. 5, as amended by Laws 1905, ch. 770, sec. 1 (2), providing that any person aggrieved may within six months after a change of road, or a new road has been opened and completed, apply for a jury to assess damages, means that the proceeding shall be begun "within," i. e., "not later than" six months after the road has been changed or the new road opened and completed. Ibid.
An exception to the Court's refusal to dismiss an action against a foreign insurance company because the summons was not served on the State Insurance Commissioner as required by Revisal, sec. 4750, cannot be sustained, where the trial Judge found no facts and it does not appear affirmatively that the company is licensed to do business in this State. Parker v. Insurance Co., 339.
Upon a motion to dismiss an action because the summons had not been properly served, the defendant had the right to have the facts stated by the Judge, but in the absence of any request to the Judge so to do, his failure to state them was not error. Ibid.
Where the complaint endeavors to set up two causes of action- one for malicious prosecution and the other for malicious abuse of process-but the evidence shows that the plaintiff's entire grievance arises from a criminal prosecution for em- bezzlement, in which he was arrested and bound over to Court, and there is no evidence that the defendant did or attempted to do any act in the criminal proceedings which was contrary to the orderly and regular prosecution of the case, an issue addressed to the cause of action for malicious abuse of process should not be submitted. Stanford v. Grocery Co., 419.
PROCESS, ABUSE OF. See "Evidence."
In a processioning proceeding under Revisal, secs. 325-326, to establish a boundary-line, where the defendant denied the plaintiff's title and pleaded both the twenty years' and seven years' statutes as a defense, the Clerk, under Revisal, sec. 717, should "transfer the cause to the civil-issue docket for trial
during the term upon all issues raised by the pleadings"-in this case, both the issues of boundary and title. Woody v. Fountain, 66.
In a processioning proceeding, the provision in Revisal, sec. 326, that occupation of land constitutes ownership for the purpose of establishing boundary, applies only where the answer does not deny the boundary, or denies only the boundary; but where the denial extends to the plaintiff's title also, and the case is transferred to the term of Court for "trial on all the issues raised" (Rev., sec. 717), the action becomes substan- tially a civil action to quiet title, and it devolves upon the plaintiff to make out his title as well as his boundary, and possession ceases to be sufficient proof of ownership. Ibid. In a processioning proceeding, where the cause has been transferred to the Court at term, an instruction to the jury that "if they should find from the greater weight of evidence that the orig- inal and true line between the plaintiff and defendant is as claimed by defendant, then you will answer this issue (as to boundary) in his favor," was erroneous, as the burden of proof was on the plaintiff to establish the line. Ibid.
PROPERTY, RIGHT TO FOLLOW. See "Fraud."
PROXIMATE CAUSE. See "Negligence."
PUBLIC POLICY. See "Statutes"; "Contracts."
PUBLIC ROADS. See "Roads and Highways."
PURCHASER FOR VALUE. See "Contracts"; "Questions for Courts." QUESTIONS FOR COURT. See "Court, Power of."
The doctrine of specific performance with compensation for de- fects, when the vendor cannot convey exactly what his contract calls for, is usually applied to cases where the defects urged as a ground for compensation existed when the contract was made, but when the circumstances required, it is extended to cases in which the defects arose afterwards, as when the property was destroyed by fire subsequently to the execution of the contract, its application resting in the sound legal discretion of the Court. Sutton v. Davis, 474.
In an action for injuries received in coupling cars without auto- matic couplers by an employee of a large manufacturing com- pany which in connection therewith and as part of the same owns twelve to fourteen miles of railroad track on which it operates, with its own crew, engine and cars belonging to it, and the cars of other roads, the Court was correct in charging
QUESTIONS FOR COURT-Continued.
the jury that the failure of the defendant to equip its cars with automatic couplers was negligence, and that if such failure was the proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries, they would answer the issue as to negligence "Yes." Hairston v. Leather Co., 512.
The exceptions to the charge of the Court on the issues directed to the question whether the defendant R. was a purchaser for value and without notice of D.'s fraudulent purpose in making certain transfers, are without merit, there being no evidence that R. had notice of facts sufficient to put him on inquiry. Bank v. Hollingsworth, 520.
In an action for damages for alleged wrongful and malicious attachment of plaintiff's property, where the general man- ager of defendant testified that the party who bought the goods told him that they were for the use of and bought for the account of plaintiff; that he had no reason to disbelieve this statement; that the former action was instituted in good faith, believing the present plaintiff owed the debt for which the property was attached; that he submitted all the facts to his counsel and acted upon his advice, and that he had no idea what property the Sheriff had attached: Held, that the Court erred in charging the jury that if they believed the evidence they would find that the attachment was issued without probable cause. Railroad Co., v. Hardware Co., 51. In an action for injuries caused by the falling of a bed-plate of a cloth press, weighing several thousand pounds, it was a question for the jury to determine whether the plaintiff placed himself in a place of obvious danger, such as no pru- dent person would occupy, in standing immediately behind and looking over the bed-plate as it stood on its edge, and directing a battering-ram which was being propelled against it from the opposite side. Shaw v. Manufacturing Co., 131. There is no presumption of mental anguish growing out of the relation of stepmother and son, but it is a fact that the plaintiff may prove, if she can, to the satisfaction of the jury. Harrison v. Telegraph Co., 147.
In an action against a Register of Deeds to recover the penalty under Revisal, sec. 2090, for issuing a marriage license con- trary to its provisions, where the uncontradicted evidence showed that the Register took the word of the prospective bridegroom and his friend, neither of whom he knew, as to
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