T. L. Smith Co. v. Burd P. Evans & Co.

Citations

• 56 Pa. Super. 626
• 1914 Pa. Super. LEXIS 131

Syllabus

<p>Principal and agent — Evidence as to agency — Declarations of agent— Burden of proof — Ratification.</p> <p>1. The burden of proving both the fact of agency and its scope lies on him who asserts them. Prima facie, the powers of an agent are limited to those expressly granted, or arising by implication from the character of the grant. The burden of proof lies on him who asserts that they have been enlarged by the acts of the principal.</p> <p>2. A selling agent for an elevator has no authority, under his agency to sell, to agree that the principal would resell the machine for the purchaser’s benefit at two-thirds of its cost price whenever the purchaser might determine not to use it longer, and whatever might be its condition and value at that time. A letter written long after the sale by the principal to the purchaser stating that the former had learned, at some time not stated, that the agent had promised that he, the agent, would try to make some disposition of the elevator for the benefit of the purchaser is not an admission on the part of the principal of precedent authority to make the agreement, nor does it furnish stable ground for an implication of a ratification of the alleged contract.</p>