Case ID: cal-unrep_1/html/0004-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "MURRAY, C. J. HEYDENFELDT, J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

SOULE & PAGE, Respondents, v. THE STEAMBOAT PIKE, Appellant.
    No. 622;
    September 22, 1855.
    Agency — Ratification by Principal. — If Lumber is Accepted by a Carpenter for, and put by Mm into, the construction of a boat, and the facts are at the time within the knowledge of the boat’s owner, the latter, although he has given the carpenter no authority to buy for him, is to be regarded as having ratified the acts of the carpenter as those of his agent, and he is responsible for the price of the lumber.
    APPEAL from Fourth Judicial District.
    N. Holland for respondents; Martin for appellant.
   MURRAY, C. J.

— The appellant assigns as error that there is no proof of any privity of contract between the plaintiffs and defendant. The testimony of the witness does not show that he was authorized to purchase the lumber in question, and without some authority, the defendant would not be liable. But the witness testifies that the lumber was used in the construction of-the boat by the order of the owner. Now, I am of opinion that if the lumber was received and used with the knowledge of the owner, he thereby ratified the act of the witness and made him his agent for the transaction, and is liable.

Judgment affirmed.

I concur: Bryan, J.

HEYDENFELDT, J.,

Dissenting. — I dissent, because there is no proof of privity of contract, no proof that the lumber was bought on account of the boat, or by authority of the owner. And although it was used in the construction of the boat, there is nothing to show that the purchase was not made by the carpenter and on his own account. And there appears from his testimony, taken by deposition and without cross-examination, a studied attempt to avoid a full and explicit relation of the facts.