Case ID: misc_66/html/0185-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Bijur, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The Realty Transfer Company, Appellant, v. Charles E. Kimball, Respondent.
    (Supreme Court, Appellate Term,
    February, 1910.)
    Principal and agent — Eights and liabilities of principal as to third person — Extent of actual authority of agent to bind principal (including implied authority) — Power to receive payment or collect debt — Payment before due.
    An agent authorized to collect rents is not to be presumed authorized to receive on the 28th day of April rent that does not fall due until the 1st day of May; and such a payment does not discharge the tenant unless the landlord ratifies the payment or receives the money paid.
    Appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment of the Municipal Court of the city of Mew York, first district, borough of Manhattan, rendered in favor of the defendant.
    Horace London, for appellant.
    Thomas A. McCoIe, for respondent.
   Bijur, J.

The action was for the recovery of fifty dollars, being one month’s rent, for the month of May, due on the first of May, under a written lease entered into between plaintiff and defendant. Apart from any question as to the weight of evidence, the testimony of defendant was that he had paid the rent due May first to plaintiff’s agent on the twenty-eighth day of April; and there is no proof or attempt to prove that plaintiff ratified this premature payment or actually received the money from the agent. Authority to an agent to receive payment of an indebtedness does not confer upon him the power to receive payment before maturity. Smith v. Kidd, 68 N. Y. 130, 141.

The judgment should he reversed and new trial ordered, 'with costs to the appellant to abide the event.

Seabury and Lehman, JJ., concur.

Judgment reversed and new trial ordered, with costs to appellant to abide event.