Estate of Heckman

Citations

• 172 Pa. 185
• 33 A. 552
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 761

Syllabus

<p>Principal and agent — Landlord and tenant — Assignment of lease — Corporations.</p> <p>Where a lease is made through an agent of the landlord to an individual, solely for the purpose of securing the property until a corporation to which the lease is to be transferred be organized, and all of this is known to the agent of the landlord, the landlord cannot, after the organization o.f the corporation, the transfer of the lease and the possession of the property to the corporation, and the payment of the rent by it to the lessor for several years, hold the individual lessee liable for the rent under the lease. The principal cannot secure the benefit of the contract and repudiate the means by which its execution was induced. In such a case knowledge on the part of the agent employed by the lessor to rent the premises for him will be imputed to the lessor.</p> <p>It seems that in such a case, where the agent was to receive one quarter of the rent for effecting the lease, the fact that he was one of the incorporators of the company did not render the lease absolutely void, so as to prevent the lessor from recovering so much of the rent as he himself was to actually receive.</p>