Canfield v. Johnson

Citations

• 144 Pa. 61
• 22 A. 974
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 582

Syllabus

<p>(а) One firm, by its agent, entered into a parol agreement with another firm, by one of its members, whereby the latter firm was to take a contract for the erection of a soldiers’ monument, each firm to do portions of the work, and to share equally with the other in the profits of the job when completed.</p> <p>(б) Under this agreement, the plaintiff firm supplied the design, and was ready and willing to do the work undertaken by it; but the defendant firm, in violation of the agreement, let out to another firm the portion of the work to be done by plaintiff firm, and completed the job without the latter:</p> <p>1. The joint contract for the erection of the monument was fairly in the line of the business of the defendant firm; and it was therefore within the authority of one of its members to bind his copartner by an agreement with the plaintiff firm for a joint interest in the undertaking.</p> <p>2. The agreement in question having been made with the defendants by the agent of the plaintiff firm, and the agent having testified as to its terms as made, it was error to exclude an offer to prove by the agent that the agreement was submitted to his principals and ratified by them.</p> <p>3. But it was not error to exclude the opinions of members of the committee, that, from the conduct of the parties when the negotiations for the contract were made, there was an understanding between them that they were to have a joint interest in it, though offered as corroborative of the agent’s testimony.</p> <p>4. Upon proof of the agreement and of its breach, the plaintiff firm was entitled to maintain assumpsit to recover damages, and was not compelled to resort to account-render or to a bill in equity, for an accounting as under a partnership relation formed and carried out.</p> <p>5. As proof of defendants’ profits on the job, one half of which was recoverable by the plaintiff firm, the testimony of the persons who made the monument and shipped it, the opinions of expert wit