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These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.  















Agency - From: 1800 To: 1849

This page lists 16 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.

 
- - Demandant, - - Tenant, O'Brien Vouchee [1811] EngR 596; (1811) 4 Taunt 196; (1811) 128 ER 304 (A)
28 Nov 1811


Agency

[ Commonlii ]
 
Corlett v Gordon And Another [1813] EngR 700; (1813) 3 Camp 472; (1813) 170 ER 1450 (A)
16 Dec 1813


Contract, Agency, Commercial
Merchants in London receive from a mere stranger residing abroad a bill of lading of certain goods, in a letter requesting them to effeet insurance, they declining to do business for the consignor, but acting bona fide with a view to his interest, indorse the bilil of lading to a friend of his, who receives the goods, and afterwards fails with the proceeds iri his hands Held, that the merchants, by indorsing the bill of ladiug were liable to the consignor for the amount
[ Commonlii ]
 
Loeschman v Machin (1818) 2 Stark 311; [1818] EngR 36; (1818) 171 ER 656
1818

Abbott J
Torts - Other, Agency
If a hirer of the goods sends them to an auctioneer to be sold, he is guilty of a conversion of the goods; and if the auctioneer afterwards refuses to deliver them to the owner, unless he will pay a sum of money which he claims, he is also guilty of a conversion.
1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
Shaw v Picton (1825) 4 B & C 715
1825

Bayley J
Agency
Bayley J: "It is quite clear, that if an agent (employed to receive money, and bound by his duty to his principal from time to time to communicate to him whether the money is received or not,) renders an account from time to time which contains a statement that the money is received, he is bound by that account unless he can shew that that statement was made unintentionally and by mistake. If he cannot shew that, he is not at liberty afterwards to say that the money had not been received, and never will be received, and to claim reimbursement in respect of those sums for which he had previously given credit."
1 Citers



 
 Fawcett v Whitehouse; 21-Dec-1829 - (1829) 1 Russ & M 132; [1829] EngR 859; (1829) 1 Russ & My 132; (1829) 39 ER 51
 
Gaussen And Others v W Morton And E Morton [1830] EngR 564; (1830) 10 B & C 731; (1830) 109 ER 622
7 May 1830


Agency
A. being indebted to B, in order to discharge the debt executed to B a power of attorney, authorising him to sell certain lands belonging to him, A.: Held, that this, being an authority coupled with an interest could not be revoked.
1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
Noel v Isaac [1835] EngR 180; (1835) 1 CrM & R 753; (1835) 149 ER 1284 (A)
1835


Agency
Trespass is not maintainable for holding an attorney to bail, notwithstanding his privilege.
[ Commonlii ]

 
 Callander v Oelrichs And Another; 12-Nov-1838 - [1838] EngR 915; (1838) 5 Bing NC 58; (1838) 132 ER 1026
 
Carnfoote v Fowke [1840] 6 M&W 358
1840


Agency
The phrase "some positive wrongful conduct" in cases of misrepresentation, is directed to the case where the principal does something with the intention that the innocent agent will mislead the third party by a misrepresentation due to his ignorance of the truth.
1 Citers


 
Carter, Esq v Sir William Henry Palmer, Bart [1842] EngR 397; (1841,1842) 8 Cl & Fin 657; (1842) 8 ER 256
17 Mar 1842


Legal Professions, Agency
The employment of counsel as confidential legal adviser disables him from purchasing for his own benefit charges on his client's etates, without his permission ; and although the confidential employment ceases, the disability continues as long as the reasons on which it is founded continue to operate.
C, a barrister, who had been for several years confidential and advising couunsel to P, and had, by reason of that relation, acquired an intimate knowledge of his property and liabilities, and was particularly consulted as to a compromise of securities given by P for a debt which C considered not to be recoverable for the full amount, purchased these securities for less than their nominal amount, without notice to P after ceasing to be his counsel. Held: that C's purchase, while the compromise proposed by P was feasible, was in trust for P ; and that C was entitled only to the sum he had paid, with interest according to the course of the Court.
1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
Collis, Assignee of French, An Insolvent Debtor, v Stone [1843] EngR 675; (1843) 4 QB 655; (1843) 114 ER 1045
12 May 1843


Agency, Insolvency

[ Commonlii ]
 
Railton v Mathews and Leonard and Another [1844] EngR 683; (1844) 10 Cl & Fin 934; (1844) 8 ER 993
14 Jun 1844


Agency, Torts - Other
A party became surety in a bond for the fidelity of a commission agent to his employers. After some time the employers discovered irregularities in the agent’s accounts, and put the bond in suit. The surety then instituted a suit to avoid the ’bond, on the ground of concealment by the employers of material circumstances affecting the agent’s credit prior to the date of the bond, and which, if communicated to the surety, would have prevented him from undertaking the obligation. On the trial of an issue whether the surety was induced to sign the bond by undue Concealment or deception on the part of the employers, the presiding Judge directed the jury, that the concealment, to be undue, must be wilful and intentional, with a view to the advantages the employers were thereby to gain : Held by the Lords (reversing the judgment of the Court of Session) that the direction was wrong in point of law. Mere non-communication of circumstances affecting the situation of the parties, material for the surety to be acquainted with, and within the knowledge of the person obtaining a surety bond, is undue concealment, though not wilful or intentional, or with a view to any advantage tor himself.
[ Commonlii ]
 
Barker v Harrison [1846] EngR 533; (1846) 2 Coll 546; (1846) 63 ER 854
16 Apr 1846

Sir James Knight-Bruce V-C
Agency, Equity
A vendor's agent had secretly negotiated a sub-sale of part of the property from the purchaser at an advantageous price. Held: that asset was held on trust for the vendor.
1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
Clarke v Tipping [1846] EngR 548; (1846) 9 Beav 284; (1846) 50 ER 352
18 Apr 1846

Wigram VC
Agency, Intellectual Property
The Defendant had bribed the Plaintiff's agent to make extracts of false entries from the books of the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff did not move for an injunction on the Defendant's answer; but, on the cause coming on for hearing, it appeared that Clarke had filed another bill in the Rolls Court, and had obtained in that suit an inspection of those books; and therefore the bill was dismissed. But the principle that an agent could not be allowed to communicate the contents of his employer's books to another person, and that that person could not publish the information so improperly obtained, was directly admitted by the Vice-Chancellor. A person guilty of bribery takes the knowledge he obtains with no better right to use it than the party communicating it; but here there is neither bribery nor fraud.
1 Cites

1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
Smart And Another v Sandars And Others [1846] EngR 865; (1846) 3 CB 380; (1846) 136 ER 152
6 Jul 1846


Contract, Agency
The mere relation of principal and factor confers, ordinarily, an authourity to sell at such times and for such prices as the factor may, in the exercise of his discretion, think best for his employer: but, if he receive the goods subject to any special instructions, he is bound to obey them. The authority, whether general or special, is revocable. Quaere, whether the factor's authority to sell can be revoked after he has made advances upon the credit of the goods consigned to him, his authority then being coupled with an interest? In assumpsit, the declaration stated that the plaintiffs had consigned wheat to the defendants, who were corn factors, for sale on account of the plaintiffs ; that the defendants then promised the plaintiffs to obey and observe the lawful orders and directions of the plaintiffs to be given by them to the defendants in regard to the sale and disposal of the wheat, and that, although the plaintiffs ordered the defendants not to sell below a certain price, and although the same was a lawful order and direction in that behalf, yet the defendants, not regarding their promise, sold at a less price. Plea, that, after the delivery of the wheat to the defendants, they became and were under advances to the plaintiffs in respect thereof ; that they gave the plaintiffs notice that they required to be repaid such advances, and that in default they should sell the wheat and repay themselves; and that, although a reasonable time had elapsed, the plaintiffs did not repay them such advances ; whereupon the defendants, for the purpose of reimbursing themselves, sold the wheat for the best prices that could then be obtained for the same, &c. Held, that the plea was bad in substance, there being nothing in the transaction disclosed upon the record, from which it could be inferred that it was part of the contract that at any time the wheat should be forfeited, or the defendant's authority to sell enlarged, so as to enable them to sell for repayment of advances, without reference to its being for the interest of the principals to sell at that particular time, and for that price.
1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
Smart and another v Sandars and Others (1848) 5 CB 895; [1848] EngR 499; (1848) 136 ER 1132
12 May 1848
CCP
Wilde CJ
Contract, Agency
A factor to whom goods have been consigned generally for sale, and who has subsequently made advances to his principal on the credit of the goods, has no right to sell them, contrary to the orders of his principal, on the latter neglecting, on request, to repay the advances, although such, sale would be a sound exercise of discretion on his part ; his authority to sell not becoming, by reason of the unpaid advances, irrevocable, as an authority coupled with an interest.
Wilde CJ said: "where an agreement is entered into on a sufficient consideration, whereby an authority is given for the purpose of securing some benefit to the donee of the authority, such an authority is irrevocable. This is what is usually meant by an authority coupled with an interest, and which is commonly said to be irrevocable. But we think this doctrine applies only to cases where the authority is given for the purpose of being a security, or, as Lord Kenyon expresses it, as a part of the security; not to cases where the authority is given independently, and the interest of the donee of the authority arises afterwards, and incidentally only."
1 Cites

1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
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