Court Opinion

ID: 9475061
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:16:29.049271+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:29.650431
License: Public Domain

ROSS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. No error was committed here because appellant failed to produce sufficient evidence to warrant submission of the apparent authority theory to the jury. Under Minnesota state law “the proof of the agent’s apparent authority must be found in the conduct of the principal, not the agent.” Truck Crane Service Co. v. Barr-Nelson, Inc., 329 N.W.2d 824, 826 (Minn.1983) (citation omitted). “[A]s a prerequisite to holding that defendant’s agent was acting within his apparent authority, one must point to some conduct on the part of defendant * * * which, reasonably interpreted, would have caused the plaintiffs to believe that [the defendant] consented to the actions of [the agent].” Hagedorn v. Aid Association for Lutherans, 297 Minn. 253, 211 N.W.2d 154, 158 (1973). “An agent’s apparent authority results from statements, conduct, lack of ordinary care, or other manifestations of the principal’s consent, whereby third persons are justified in believing that the agent is acting within his authority.” McGee v. Breezy Point Estates, 283 Minn. 10, 166 N.W.2d 81, 89 (1969).
The Supreme Court of Minnesota, in Truck Crane Service Co., supra, found the following factors “insufficient as a matter of law to support a finding of apparent authority sufficient to bind the principal”: the employee had been secretary-treasurer for defendant company and no steps had been taken to inform plaintiff company that he no longer held that office; the employee’s name appeared on the company’s checks as secretary-treasurer; the employee answered the telephone at the company office, did other general office work for the company, and the company knew or should have known of such conduct by the *1325employee. Truck Crane Service Co. v. Barr-Nelson, Inc., supra, 329 N.W.2d at 826.
In this case the record establishes even less conduct on the part of the principal that might support a finding of apparent authority. As in Truck Crane, the evidence does not establish “an affirmative course of conduct by the principal that would constitute holding out or even knowingly permitting” Olson to engage in the complained-of conduct. Id. The majority opinion fails to point to sufficient evidence tending to show this “affirmative course of conduct” on the part of the appellee. The conduct set forth in footnote 3 clearly is not sufficient under Truck Crane.