Miller v. Belmont Packing & Rubber Co.

Citations

• 268 Pa. 51
• 110 A. 802
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 628

Syllabus

<p>Corporation — Contract — President — Authority of president to make contract — Accepting benefits — Authority of agent — Waiver.</p> <p>1. Where a corporation is chartered “for the purpose of manufacturing packings,” and its by-laws provide that the president shall have “entire charge of the general business of the company as authorized by its charter,” and the president enters into a contract to pay royalties for the use of a patent for a form of packing, the corporation will he bound by the act of the president.</p> <p>2. One who accepts and continues to take and retain the benefits of an agreement, cannot he heard to deny the authority of the agent who acted for him in the making thereof.</p> <p>Contract — Agreement to pay royalties on patent — Evidence—■ Charge — Failure to ask for instructions.</p> <p>3. In an action against a corporation to recover royalties for the use of a patented invention, where the president of defendant admits on file stand that the company had “manufactured and sold” articles under the rights assigned by plaintiff, and still continues i,o do so, although denying the agreement to pay royalties, it is not reversible error for the trial judge to omit to place before the jury an issue of fact whether or not defendant had made sales of the patented article; and particularly is this so, where defendant’s counsel failed to call the judge’s attention at the trial to the omission.</p> <p>Contract — Patented article — Royalties — Accounting — Time — Question for court — Consideration—Pcwol evidence.</p> <p>4. Where a corporation agrees orally, through its president, to pay to the patentee royalties on a patented article, and subsequently takes an assignment of the patent from the patentee, the obligation to pay royalties will subsist so long as the corporation continues to sell the patented article. The company, after a reasonable time, and on demand, will be bound to account to the patentee fbr the sales made by it; and, if all relevant fact