Michigan Central Railroad v. Gougar

Citations

• 55 Ill. 503

Syllabus

<p>1. Agent—power to submit to arbitration. An agent can not submit the cause of his principal to arbitration without express authority from his principal so to do.</p> <p>2. Evidence—the admissions and declarations of an agent or servant do not, in general, bind the principal. To be admissible in evidence, they must enter into and form a part of the res gestee,—must be in the nature of original, and not hearsay, evidence. They must be made not only during the continuance of the agency, but in regard to a transaction depending at the time.</p> <p>3. In an action against a railroad company for the killing of the plaintiff’s cattle by an engine of the defendants, it was held, that the declarations of the engineer in charge of the engine, made subsequent to the happening of the accident, at a place distant therefrom, and at a time when the engineer was not transacting or doing any business of the company in relation thereto, were inadmissible as evidence to bind the company.</p>