Wax v. Roydhouse Arey Co.

Citations

• 59 Pa. Super. 142
• 1915 Pa. Super. LEXIS 35

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Breach—■Ratification—Adoption in part — Principal and agent — Case for jury.</p> <p>1. In an action against a corporation to recover damages for breach of contract it appeared that the defendant was engaged in tearing down an old structure, and that a son of the president of the defendant company had authority to sell scrap iron and lumber from the building. The plaintiff purchased from the son iron and junk “including beams,' stairways and miscellaneous scrap.” There was evidence that outside the iron beams the scrap was practically worthless, and that it cost more to remove it than the money which it would realize on a resale. The president of the defendant company saw the plaintiff moving the scrap away, but before the beams were removed, told the plaintiff that he had use for the beams himself, and that his son had no authority to sell them. The plaintiff was also informed that the beams were not the property of the defendant. Held, that the question of agency was for the jury, and that a verdict and judgment for plaintiff for the value of the beams should be sustained.</p> <p>2. Where one adopts a contract entered into without his authority he must adopt it altogether; he cannot ratify the beneficial part and reject the remainder.</p>