Case Name: In re ROANOKE FURNACE CO.
Court: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1909-01-23
Citations: 166 F. 944
Docket Number: No. 8,580
Parties: In re ROANOKE FURNACE CO.
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter
Volume: 166
Pages: 944–954

Head Matter:
In re ROANOKE FURNACE CO.
(District Court, E. D. Pennsylvania.
January 23, 1909.
On the Merits, January 27, 1909.)
No. 8,580.
1. Bankruptcy (§ 318 ) — Corporations — Provable Claims — Attempted Transfer op Contract to Corporation by Officer.
The president of a furnace company, who owned the greater part of its stock and was also lessee of certain iron mines, entered personally into a contract with claimant to mine ore from such mines and deliver the same to his order on board ears. He subsequently wrote and signed a contract between himself and the company by which he assigned to the company all his rights under the contract with claimant, and which provided that the company should indemnify him against any liability thereon. The seal of the corporation was not placed on such purported agreement, nor was it authorized by the directors. The ore mined by claimant was shipped to and used by the company, and claimant made out bills in its name which were presented to and paid by the president until both he and the corporation were adjudged bankrupt, both having been insolvent at the time the contract was made. Held, that he had no power to so bind the corporation, and that claimant did not thereby become its creditor for a balance due him which he was entitled to prove only against the estate of the president.
[Ed. Note. — For other eases, see Bankruptcy, Dec. Dig. § 318. ]
2. Principal and Agent (§ 143 ) — Rights and Diabilities as to Third Persons — Ratification—Acts Capable of Ratification.
• A contract made by a person in his own name and on his own behalf cannot be made the contract of another as principal by an attempted ratification of the act as that of an agent.
[Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Principal and Agent, Dee. Dig. § 143. j
3. Corporations (§ 426 ) — Representation by Officers — Ratification.
An officer of a corporation cannot by his own act ratify on behalf of the corporation a contract made by him without authority.
[Ed. Note. — For other eases, see Corporations, Cent. Dig. § 1707: Dec. Dig. § 426. ]
In Bankruptcy. On certificate of referee concerning re-examination of claim of Thomas L. Woodruff.
See, also, 152 Fed. 846.
Charles F. Eggleston and Turner K. Hackman, for claimant.
John Dickey, Jr., Arthur G. Dickson, and Samuel W. Cooper, for trustee.
For other cases see same topic & § number in Dec. & Am. Digs. 1907 to date, & Rep’r Indexes

Opinion:
J. B. McPHERSON, District Judge.
1. The motion of T. E- Wood-ruff, claimant, filed on December 28, 1908, praying the court to dismiss the trustee's petition (which does not seem to have been presented until December 30th), in which a special order granting a petition for review of the referee's decision is asked for nunc pro tunc, is hereby refused.
2. In my opinion, the referee did not make a final order, allowing the claim of T. E. Woodruff as a lien creditor entitled to priority of payment, until September 2, 1908. Upon consideration of the trustee's motion for leave to file a petition to review that order, and the claim ant's answer thereto, it is ordered that the trustee have leave to file now in the District Court the petition for review that has already been presented to the referee, with the same effect as if it had been filed with him within 10 days from September 2, 1908.
As the referee's record has in fact been duly certified to the court, and a full argument has been had upon the questions raised by his decision, no further action by the referee is necessary.