Schrack v. McKnight
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Berks county: Of January Term 1877, No. 95. Assumpsit by McKnight against Schrack to recover the subscription price of five shares of the Berks County Railroad Company.
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Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Berks county: Of January Term 1877, No. 95. Assumpsit by McKnight against Schrack to recover the subscription price of five shares of the Berks County Railroad Company. At the trial these facts appeared:— When the subscription- books of the company were opened, Schrack authorized McKnight, by a letter of attorney, “ to subscribe five shares of stock in the Berks County Railroad and to pay the sum of $25 as the first instalment” for him, and “ to vote said shares of stock, so subscribed, as fully and as effectually” as he, Schrack, “ could do if personally…
1Opinion of the CourtJustice Mercur
We discover no substantial error in the fifth, sixth and ninth assignments. All the other assignments relate to question of agency, and will be considered together.
Three rules, in regard to the liability of a principal for the acts of one professing to be his agent, are pretty well established :
1. An agent constituted for a particular purpose, and under a limited power, cannot bind his principal if he exceeds that power.
2. A subsequent ratification by a principal of the unauthorized act of his agent, may have the same effect as previous authority.
3. The principal is bound to disavow the…
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