Ward Hunt

“ It is no answer to this liability to say that the act done by the agent was of a fraudulent character, and that the principal did not authorize the commission of a fraud. For a fraud committed by a partner or an agent the principal is not liable criminally; but he is liable in a civil suit if the fraud be committed in the transaction of the very business in which the agent was appointed to act. ”

“ It is not perceived that it can make any difference that such collection agency is composed of individuals, instead of being an incorporation. These authorities go far towards establishing the position that Archer & Co., in the case before us, were independent contractors, and that the parties employed by them were their agents only, and not the agents of Wise & Co., in such manner that Wise & Co. are responsible for their negligence, or chargeable with their knowledge. ”

“ The evidence was uncontradicted in every particular. It became, therefore, as stated in the opinion of the Court of Appeals, a question of law, whether the evidence sustained the findings of the referee. ”

“ Among other points, they insisted upon the following: viz., If the plaintiffs placed the acceptances in the defendants' hands for collection, and knew that their personal attention and direct service in such collection would not in the usual course of business, be given to it at Memphis, and that the employment of an attorney to attend to it at Memphis was necessary, or the proper and usual course of doing such business, then the plaintiffs thereby made either such person or defendants their agent therein, with power to employ an attorney or sub-agent therein at Memphis ”

“ There is, however, another class of cases still more to the point.
In Bradstreet v. Everson, 72 Penn. St. 124, the case was this: The defendants were a commercial agency in Pittsburg, with agents throughout the United States, for the collection of commercial paper. ”