Bertholf v. Quinlan Bros.

Citations

• 68 Ill. 297

Syllabus

<p>1. Trover—when it lies—conversion. If a person is in the possession of the property of another, claiming it as his own, under a contract by a title adverse to that of the owner, the latter, after demand and a refusal, may maintain trover.</p> <p>2. Same—right in plaintiff necessary to maintain. The plaintiff in trover must show that he has either a general or a special property in the thing converted, and the right to its possession.</p> <p>3. Where the plaintiff’s agent traded a lot of whiskey for a piano, with the defendant, upon condition that his principal should approve the bargain, and delivered possession of a part of the whiskey, and the principal repudiated the exchange, and demanded the whiskey of the defendant, which he refused to deliver, claiming that the exchange was an absolute one: Held, that the plaintiff might maintain trover for the same.</p> <p>4. Agency— transfer without authority—agent's liability to principal does not make sale good,. Where an agent exchanges the property of his principal without authority, the fact of his liability to the principal will afford no ground for defeating an action of trover brought by. the principal against the party receiving the same from the agent, or release his liability to the owner after his refusal to deliver the same on demand.</p> <p>5. Same—authority by previous ratification of similar acts. The fact that the principal of an agent to collect claims had, on two prior occasions, sanctioned payments to the latter, in a pipe and in a watch and chain, by charging the same to the agent’s account, will not bind the principal to a sale of his property for a piano, made without authority, especially where the principal repudiated it on the next day, and as soon as advised of it.</p> <p>6. In this case, the plaintiff’s agent to collect debts for liquor sold, found the debtor unable to pay, and that he had mortgaged the liquor to a third party, who refused to give it up unless paid his demand. The agent, for t