De Pasquale v. Mason Manufacturing Co.
De Pasquale v. Mason Manufacturing Co.
Opinion of the Court
This is an action of trespass on the case for negligence brought to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff while in the employ of the defendant company on the 12th of June, 1913. In answer to the plaintiff’s declaration the defendant pleaded that at the time of the injury both the defendant as employer and the plaintiff as employee were subject to the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, Chapter 831 of the Public Laws of 1912.
The Workmen’s Compensation Act went into effect October 1, 1912. A few days prior to that date, Edward H. Mason, the president, treasurer, and general executive officer of the defendant company, filed in the office of the Commissioner of Industrial Statistics a notice that said com *116 pany accepted the provisions of the act. This notice was signed, “Mason Manufacturing Co., E. H. Mason, Treas.”
The board of directors of said company never adopted or recorded any formal resolution expressly authorizing and directing said Mason as treasurer to act for the corporation in filing such notice, but before filing the same Mason consulted all the directors of the corporation and all of them agreed that such notice should be filed by the company and that the corporate name should be affixed thereto by the said Mason as treasurer in the manner in which the same was subsequently done. Later all of the directors were informed of the fact and had knowledge that such notice had been filed by the treasurer.
The plaintiff at no time gave any notice to the defendant company that she claimed her right of action at common law. At the trial in the Superior Court upon the conclusion of the testimony a verdict for the defendant was directed upon the ground that the evidence conclusively showed that at the time of the accident to the plaintiff both plaintiff and defendant were within the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act and therefore no common law action could be maintained. To this action of the trial court the plaintiff excepted. The plaintiff also took other exceptions to the number of two hundred and thirty-two to the rulings *117 of the trial court in admitting and rejecting testimony. We will however first take up for consideration plaintiff’s exception number two hundred and thirty-three relating to action of the trial court in directing a verdict for the defendant.
The plaintiff contends (1) that the notice of the acceptance of the act by the defendant, executed and filed in the manner and form in which it was is not in law an acceptance of the compensation act for the reason that the board of directors have not, in actual meeting, formally adopted and recorded any resolution expressly directing the corporation, through some officer, to accept the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, and (2) that the copies of the notice of acceptance were not posted in the defendant’s factory in the manner required by the act.
There is some testimony that the board of directors had no regular times of meeting and that Mr. Mason as the general executive officer of the corporation consulted with the other directors about its affairs. If it was the custom of the company to transact its business in that manner there is good authority for saying that the acts of Mr. Mason would be binding upon the corporation. Indiana Die-Casting Development Co. v. Newcomb, 111 N. E. 16 (Ind. 1916), and cases therein cited.
The uncontradicted testimony of Mason, the treasurer, clearly shows that all the directors were consulted by him as to the desirability of accepting the provisions of the act; that they were all of the opinion that there was nothing else to do but accept it and that he should go ahead and do it. It also appears, without contradiction, that after the notice of the acceptance was filed each and all of thve directors were notified that the same had been filed in behalf of the corporation and they were in possession of that information on January 13, 1913, six months prior to the accident, when a formal meeting of the directors was held at which no action was taken to disaffirm, repudiate or even question the action of the treasurer in that regard.
*118 We think that under the circumstances the action of the treasurer in filing the notice of acceptance was ratified through the acquiescence of the directors and their failure to disaffirm or repudiate the same. In Sherman et al., v. Fitch, 98 Mass. 59 at 64, it was held that the act of the president of a corporation in executing a mortgage in its behalf, with the knowledge and concurrence of the directors, or with their subsequent acquiescence may properly be regarded as the act of the corporation, and in Pittsburgh, &c., Co. v. Keokuk, &c., Co., 9 Supreme Ct. Rep. 770 at 773, the court said: “When the president of a corporation executes in its behalf, and within the scope of its charter, a contract which requires the concurrence of the board of directors, and the board knowing that he has done so, does not dissent within a reasonable time, it will be presumed to have ratified his act.” See, also, Indiana, &c., Co. v. Newcomb, supra; Lyndeborough Glass Co. v. Mass. Glass Co., 111 Mass. 315; O’Grady v. Howe & Rogers Co., 152 N. Y. Supp. 79; Sun Printing & Pub. Ass’n v. Moore, 22 S. C. Rep. 240.
We find no error in the action of the Superior Court in directing a verdict for the defendant and the plaintiff’s exception numbered two hundred and thirty-three based thereon is overrruled.
In view of this conclusion reached by a majority of the court the remaining two hundred and thirty-two exceptions become unimportant and are therefore overruled.
This case is remitted to the Superior Court with direction to enter judgment for the defendant on the verdict as directed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Angelina De Pasquale, P. A. vs. Mason Manufacturing Company
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- Published