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PRINCIPAL AND AGENT
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See also:PRINCIPAL AND See also:AGENT . In See also:law an agent is a See also:person authorized to do some See also:act or acts in the name of another, who is called his principal. The law regulating the relations of principal and agent has its origin in the law of See also:mandate among the See also:Romans, and in See also:England the spirit of that See also:system of See also:jurisprudence pervades this See also:branch of the law. The.law of agency is thus almost alike throughout the whole See also:British See also:Empire, and a branch of the British commercial See also:code, in which it is of See also:great importance that different nations should understand each other's system, differs only slightly from the law of the See also:rest of See also:Europe. In a See also:general view of the law of agency it is necessary to have regard to the rights and duties of the principal, the agent, and the public. The agent should not do what he has no authority for; yet if he be seen to have authority, those with whom he deals should not be injured by See also:secret and unusual conditions. The employer is See also:bound by what his agent does in his name, but the public are not entitled to take See also:advantage of obligations which are known to be unauthorized and unusual. The agent is entitled to demand performance by the principal of the obligations undertaken by him within the See also:bounds of his See also:commission, but he is not entitled to See also:pledge him with a recklessness which he would certainly avoid in the management of his own affairs. It is in the regulation of these See also:powers and corresponding checks in such a manner that the legal principle shall apply to daily practice, that the niceties of this branch of the law consist. Agents are of different kinds, according to their stipulated or See also:consuetudinary powers. The See also:main See also:restraint in the possible powers of an agent is in the old See also:maxim, delegatus non potest delegare, designed to check the complexity that might be created by inquiries into repeatedly-deputed responsibility. The agent cannot delegate his commission or put another in his See also:place; but in practice this principle is sometimes modified, for it so may arise from the nature of his See also:office that he is to employ other persons for the accomplishment of certain See also:objects. Thus, there is nothing to prevent a commercial agent from sending a portion of the goods entrusted by him to his own agent for disposal.
In the general See also:case agency is constituted by the See also:acceptance of the mandate or authority to act for the principal, and the See also:evidence of this may be either verbal or in See also:writing. The See also:English See also:statute of frauds requires an agent to have authority in writing for the purposes of its 1st, and and 3rd clauses See also:relating to leases. " And it is a general See also:rule, that an agent who has to execute a See also:deed, or to take or give See also:livery or See also:seisin, must be appointed by deed for that purpose. Moreover, as a See also:corporation aggregate can in general act only by deed, its agent must be so appointed, though it would seem that some trifling agencies, even for corporations, may be appointed without one." (See also: Thus, as a See also:familiar instance, the servant who has continued to See also:purchase goods for his See also:master at a particular See also:shop on See also:credit is presumed to retain authority and See also:trust, and pledges his master's credit in further purchases, though he should, without the knowledge of the shopkeeper, apply the articles to his own uses. The law is ever jealous in admitting as accessories of a general appointment to any particular agency the See also:power to See also:borrow See also:money in the principal's name, to give his name to See also:bill transactions, and to pledge him to guaranties; but all these acts may be authorized by implication, or by being the continuation of a See also:series of transactions, of the same See also:kind and in the same See also:line of business, to which the principal has given his See also:sanction. Thus an employer may, by the previous sanction of such operations, be liable for the bills or notes See also:drawn, indorsed and accepted by his clerk or other mandatary; See also:nay, may be responsible for the obligations thus incurred after the mandatary's dismissal, if the party dealing with him knew that he was countenanced in such trans-actions, and had no See also:reason to suppose that he was dismissed. In questions of this kind the distinction between a general and a See also:special agent is important. A general agent is employed totransact all his principal's business of a particular kind, at a certain place—as a factor to buy and sell; a broker to negotiate contracts of a particular kind ; an attorney to transact his legal business; a shipmaster to do all things relating to the employment of a See also:ship. Such an agent's power to do every-thing usual in the line of business in which he is employed is not limited by any private restriction or See also:order unknown to the party with whom he is dealing. On the contrary, it is See also:incumbent on the party dealing with a. particular agent, i.e. one specially employed in a single transaction, to ascertain the extent of his authority. The law applicable to a mercantile agent's power to pledge or otherwise dispose of the goods entrusted to him being in an unsatisfactory See also:state, a statutory remedy was applied to it by an act of 1825 (6 Geo. IV. c. 94), amended in 1842 (5 & 6 Viet. c. 39) and replaced by the Factors Act 1889. The obligations of the principal are: to pay the agent's remuneration, or, as it is often called, commission, the amount of which is fixed by See also:contract or the usage of See also:trade; to pay all advances made by the agent in the See also:regular course of his employment; and to See also:honour the obligations lawfully undertaken for him. The agent is responsible for the See also:possession of the proper skill and means for carrying out the functions which he undertakes. He must devote to the interests of his employer such care and See also:attention as a See also:man of See also:ordinary prudence bestows on his own—a See also:duty capable of no more certain See also:definition, the application of it as a fixed rule being the function of a See also:jury. He is bound to observe the strictest See also:good faith; and the law even interposes to remove him from temptation to See also:sacrifice his employer's interests to his own (see See also:Coll-See also:MISSION: Secret). Thus, when he is employed to buy, he must not be the seller. When an agent is employed to sell, he must not be the purchaser. He ought only to See also:deal with persons in good credit, but he is not responsible for their See also:absolute solvency unless he See also:guarantee them. A mercantile agent guaranteeing the payments he treats for is said to hold a del credere commission. See also Auc'See also:mars AND AUCTIONEERS ; BROKER ;FACTOR ; GUARANTEE, &C.; also Smith's Mercantile Law (II th ed., 1905) ; Bowstead, On Agency (4th ed., 1909). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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