Weldon v. Traction Co.
Weldon v. Traction Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff’s action was based on a claim for professional services alleged to have been rendered at the request of R. H. Schoenen, an agent of the defendant; and the validity of the claim depends upon the authority of the agent.
A Mrs. Kessler received an injury in getting off a car.
Neither the acts nor the declarations of the agent in the premises are competent to establish his authority. Nor does the ■ plaintiff himself seem to have considered his authority sufficient, for, when he asked the agent about his pay and was informed that the company would pay, he said: “ I would like to have authority from one of the higher officials.” The next day the agent told him that the president of the company had ratified the arrangement, and thereafter the plaintiff seems to have rested on that assurance. But the agent’s assertion of the president’s ratification is no better than his promise on behalf of the company. The plaintiff’s contention is, that having shown that Schoenen was the claim agent of the defendant at the time he made the contract with the plaintiff for professional services, the plaintiff had a right to presume that he had authority to so bind the defendant. We are not warranted in holding that a claim agent is presumptively invested with authority to employ surgeons at the expense of his principal. Presumably the duty of claim agents is to adjust claims against their employers, not to create new obligations. It was obligatory' on the plaintiff to show that' the agent’s authority comprehended such conduct as the engagement of a surgeon.
The evidence relating to the employment by the same agent
The accident reports sent in by the motorman, conductor and road officer, do not amount to notice to the company that the plaintiff had been called to attend the person injured at the expense of the company. One of the reports states that the patient after being carried into the house, was attended by Dr. C. F. Welden; another, that “O. F. Welden, doctor, was summoned; ” the third merely states “ doctor summoned.” In none of them is it reported that the plaintiff was engaged or was acting on behalf of the company.
On the evidence presented, the court was not in error in directing a verdict in favor of the defendant. The judgment is, therefore, affirmed.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Principal and agent — Contract—Evidence—Physician—Street railways— Claim agent. Where a physician brings an action against a street railway company to recover for professional services rendered to an injured pássenger, and the plaintiff avers that he was employed to render such service by the claim agent of the defendant, the burden is on the plaintiff to show that the claim agent had general authority to employ a physician, or special authority in the particular instance, or that his engagement of the plaintiff was ratified by the defendant, or that the defendant had so held him out as its agent, that it was estopped in denying his authority. Declarations of the agent that the president of the defendant had ratified the arrangement are insufficient. In such a case evidence of the employment by the same agent of another surgeon to attend other injured persons, is incompetent, where it appears that the compensation of the other surgeon was included in settlements made with the injured persons as a part of the consideration for the settlement, and that no question arose as to the surgeon’s right to hold the company on the employment by the agent. Accident reports are, also, insufficient evidence in such a case, where it appears that the reports, although containing the name of the surgeon, in no way show that he was engaged or was acting on behalf of the company.