Videau v. Griffin

Citations

• 21 Cal. 389

Syllabus

<p>The authority of an attorney to execute for his principal a conveyance of real estate must he in writing, and a deed purporting to have been executed by an attorney is inadmissible in evidence without proof being first made of the attorney’s written authority.</p> <p>When a deed has been executed by an attorney without any previous written author^ ity, no subsequent parol acknowledgment of his authority by the principal will make the conveyance valid.</p> <p>The only exception to the rule that an authority to execute a deed must be conferred by writing, is when the execution by the attorney is in the presence of the principal, and to bring a case within this exception it is not sufficient that the attorney was directed to sign the name of the principal and afiix his seal, but the execution must have been in his immediate presence and under his immediate direction.</p> <p>The fact that the execution was in the presence of the principal must be affirmatively established liy the party who relies upon it as an excuse for the absence of a power in writing, and it is not to be inferred from any coincidence between the date of the deed and an acknowledgment of the principal that it was executed by his attorney.</p>