Beal & Simons v. Adams Express Co.

Citations

• 13 Pa. Super. 143
• 1900 Pa. Super. LEXIS 125

Syllabus

<p>Principal and agent — Scope of authority — Burden of proof.</p> <p>The act of an agent is the act of his principal so long as it is within the scope of the authority delegated, but a delegation of certain specific powers gives no authority to bind the principal generally. The burden is upon him who seeks to avail himself of the acts of an agent, in order to charge the principal, to prove the authority under which the agent acted, to establish the agency and the extent thereof.</p> <p>Principal and agent — Statute of limitations.</p> <p>A debt may be taken out of the statute by the act of an agent done in the regular course of his business if he has specific authority for that purpose, or if such authority be necessarily implied from the nature of his duties, but this results, not from the power to create new debts, but from a distinct and independent power to settle and adjust old ones. These powers are not in their nature the same, nor very much alike. The one is not a logical nor legal consequence of the other.</p> <p>Principal and agent — Statute of limitations — Promise by agent.</p> <p>A “route agent” of an express company, whose duty it is to “check up offices, trace lost goods, solicit business, and look after train messengers,” cannot bind his principal by a promise which would take a debt out of the bar of the statute of limitations, where there is no evidence of a general authority, nor of a specific authority to make such promise, nor of a former course of dealing by the agent from which the existence of such authority might have been inferred.</p> <p>Statute of limitations — Insufficient promise.</p> <p>The evidence of a promise to pay a debt is wholly insufficient to avoid the bar of the statute of limitations, where it appears that there was no unconditional promise to pay, and no statement of any amount to be paid, nor reference to anything by which, the amount could be definitely ascertained.</p> <p>Trial — Evidence to establish agency.</p> <p>Evi