Fee v. Adams Express Co.

Citations

• 38 Pa. Super. 83
• 1909 Pa. Super. LEXIS 94

Syllabus

<p>Principal and agent — Express company — Route agent — Evidence.</p> <p>1. Where it is sought to hold an express company on a contract made by one of its route agents to pay a sum of money to a constable for securing the arrest of thieves who had stolen packages from the company, it is proper to permit the general agent of the company, who had charge of the route agents and knew the extent of their authority, to testify that the route agent had no authority to make such a contract.</p> <p>2. While the fact that a certain act is or is not within the scope of ’the authority of one who, admittedly, is a ministerial agent, cannot be proved by evidence of his declarations to third persons, yet if his authority is orally conferred, he is a competent witness to the fact.</p> <p>3. An agent is competent to prove his own authority where it is by parol, but his declarations in pais are not proof of it; and though they become evidence as part of the res geste, if made in the conduct of his business intrusted to him, yet other evidence must first establish his authority to speak before his words shall bind his principal.</p> <p>4. In an action against an express company to recover on a contract alleged to have been made by the route agent of the company, to pay the plaintiff, the constable, a stated sum for procuring the arrest of a thief, binding instructions should be given for the defendant, where the plaintiff produces no evidence to show the functions of a route agent, the nature of his duties, the extent of his powers, or that the company had ever held him out as having authority to make such a contract, or that he had ever made similar contracts with the plaintiff, or anyone else.</p> <p>5. Where a route agent of an express company is assigned by his employer to investigate a theft, there is not implied in such assignment a power to contract with a constable, who had been designated previously as the commonwealth’s agent in a requisition for a person charged with the t