Benjamin Robbins Curtis

“ Whether Harry was principal or agent, it was competent and important for the plaintiff to prove that he was dealt with and treated as a principal; and there could be no better evidence of it than the correspondence concerning the transaction. On the trial of a commercial cause such a correspondence is not only generally admissible, but it is often the highest evidence of the nature of the acts of the parties and the capacities in which they acted and the relations they sustained to each other. ”

“ Of course there may be cases where the allegations of the parties on the record restrict them to one line of proof; and there may be others in which the court, to guard against surprise, should not allow a party to open one line of proof, and in the course of the trial abandon it and take an inconsistent one. ”

“ Under these circumstances our opinion is that it was not improper for the judge to leave it to the jury to find whether Harry was the agent of William, if he were not himself the owner of the property. Nor do we think these two states of fact present such inconsistent grounds as ought not to have been submitted to the jury. It is true Harry could not be at the same time principal and agent; but it often happens in courts of justice that a right may be presented in an alternate form or upon different grounds. ”