Service v. Deming Investment Co.

Citations

• 20 Wash. 668
• 56 P. 837
• 1899 Wash. LEXIS 222

Syllabus

<p>PRINCIPAL AND AGENT—AUTHORITY TO SELL LAND—AGEN OY—EVIDENCE —PAROL.</p> <p>Although the authority of an agent may be merely an oral authorization to find a purchaser for certain land, yet his written contract for its sale is binding on his principal, when the principal subsequently; ratifies the same by agreeing to the terms of sale and accepting earnest money paid thereon.</p> <p>In the examination of a witness, it is not error for the court to permit him to state his conclusion or opinion as to the relationship of principal and agent between defendant and another, without disclosing facts which would constitute agency, as the grounds upon which the conclusion of the witness is based may be probed on cross-examination.</p> <p>Parol testimony as to the contents of a written instrument is admissible, upon proof of loss of the original, and that it could not he found after diligent and careful search.</p> <p>In an action for damages for failure to convey land, to which the defence is raised that the contract of purchase was made with an unauthorized agent of defendant, an unexecuted contract transmitted in a letter by defendant to the alleged agent, conforming to the terms of the contract as made by him, is admissible in evidence as a fact tending to show the alleged agent’s authority and ratification by the defendant.</p>