Principal (law)

“ The law of agency which a State chooses to follow functions, for the most part, free of constitutional restraint; in our federal system, each State may regulate the relations between principal, agent, and third parties according to its own standards of fairness and sound policy. ”

“ The chief subject-matter under the law of principal and agent is contracts, while the chief subject-matter of the law of master and servant is tort. The servant, in performing acts for his master, may, inadvertently or wilfully, cause injury to a third person or to the property of a third person. ”

“ RIGHTS OF PRINCIPAL AGAINST THIRD PERSONS.—Now, the right of the principal against the third person is the converse of the right of the third person against the principal, of which we have been speaking. Generally when a transaction is of such a sort that the third person would have a right of action against the principal, if the principal fails to do as he agreed, the principal will have a right of action against the third person if the latter breaks his agreement. ”

“ The principal will be able, it is true, even in such a case, to revoke the power, but he will commit a breach of contract if he does.
AGENCY BY RATIFICATION.—Where the assent of the principal to the act of the agent is given after the act is performed, it is in the nature of a ratification of the act, and is intended to clothe the act with the same qualities as if there had been a previous authority or appointment. Suppose, for example, A and B are acquaintances. Both are wealthy. A is a good judge of horses and knows B likes good horses. ”

“ Of all the parts of a law the most effectual is the vindicatory. For it is but lost labour to say, “do this, or avoid that,” unless we also declare, “this shall be the consequence of your non-compliance.” We must therefore observe, that the main strength and force of a law consists in the penalty annexed to it. Herein is to be found the principal obligation of human laws.
Legislators and their laws are said to compel and oblige; ”

“ The General Government is an agent with limited powers, [Pg 16] constituted by the States as principals to execute their joint will, expressed in the Constitution.
2. But in private affairs, a principal has a right to revoke or modify the powers of his agent at discretion, to put his own construction upon them, and to disavow and annul any acts done by the agent upon a mistaken construction of his powers; while the agent, on his part, has no right to enforce his construction against that of his principal. ”

“ But where the principal is within a reasonable distance, something more than a formal affidavit by his agent is expected. At least the suppletory oath of the principal as to the facts, should be tendered ”

“ Every person unable to take this oath was declared by the constitution incapable of holding in the state "any office of honor, trust, or profit under its authority, or of being an officer, councilman, director, or trustee, or other manager of any corporation, public or private, now existing or hereafter established by its authority, or of acting as a professor or teacher in any educational institution, or in any common or other school, or of holding any real estate or other property in trust for the use of any church, religious society, or congregation." ”

“ As agents, they have exceeded their power, and their acts do not bind their principals. If an agent acts under special authority, his acts, within the scope of his authority, are binding upon his principal; but if he violates his instructions, and attempts to make a contract not warranted by his letter of attorney, his acts have no binding force upon his principal. The same is true of those men who are elected and appointed to fill the different offices in the government. The constitution is their letter of attorney. ”

“ It is therefore necessary to remember, and to emphasise, that the true order is the other way about, the People being the master of the Law-making body, and the Law-making body the master of the Executive. ”

“ The administration of justice would be an empty form, an idle ceremony. Judges would sit to execute legislative judgments and decrees; not to declare the law or to administer the justice of the country.
That the power of electing and appointing the officers of this college is not only a right of the trustees as a corporation, generally, and in the aggregate, but that each individual trustee has also his own individual franchise in such right of election and appointment, is according to the language of all the authorities. ”

“ An administrator under grant of administration in one State stands in none of these relations to an administrator in another. Each is privy to the testator, and would be estopped by a judgment against him; but they have no privity with each other, in law or in estate. They receive their authority from different sovereignties, and over different property. The authority of each is paramount to the other. Each is accountable to the ordinary from whom he receives his authority. ”

“ The Government functionaries were openly accused of bribery and corruption, which undoubtedly existed at the diggings amongst the gold commissioners and police—the people, therefore, lost all confidence, and every law, irrespective of its necessity, became at once odious when found to be a marketable commodity. ”

“ It is most important that the duties of an officer shall not be moulded by any but those who establish and regulate these duties, by statute.
The common law is not to be looked into for analogies to support such assumptions of power. The authority of those who hold public trusts in the United States, depends on the precise provisions of statutes. ”

“ If not paid at that time, thea ggregate of principal and interest thus combined would have constituted the new principal, which, according to the uniform practice of the court, would bear interest from that date. ”

“ Such a Diet shall be opened on the fiftieth day from that period when the council of state had proclaimed the summons in the churches of the capital. Article 96. The estates shall at every Diet appoint an officer, distinguished for integrity and learning in the law, to watch over, as their deputy, the conduct of the judges and other official men, and who shall, in legal order and at the proper court, arraign those who in the performance of their offices have betrayed negligence and partiality, or else have committed any illegal act. ”

“ There must have been a certain consciousness of independence in power, and an intolerance of constituted authority, promptly expressed. This must have been the case when we consider that, amongst the more enterprising class, who constituted the vast majority of the diggers, there were found many who had been repealers, chartists, and socialists,—the warm-blooded Italian, the determined, free-thinking German, and the liberty-declaiming American, always sympathizing with any rising discontent, aiding and abetting any undertaking to overturn the restraints put on them by law. ”

“ If, therefore, it should seem good to your Majesty to remit, for further consideration, any of the proposed Australian Constitutions, we humbly but most earnestly entreat that the Bill for establishing a new Constitution in the colony of Victoria may, without delay, be passed into law. ”

“ For, as they represent the persons of their respective masters, who owe no subjection to any laws but those of their own country, their actions are not subject to the control of the private law of that state, wherein they are appointed to reside. ”

“ No person is pointed out in the act of Congress, either by name or by description, against whom it is to operate. The oath is only required of those who propose to accept an office or to practise law; and as a prerequisite to the exercise of the functions of the lawyer, or the officer, it is demanded of all persons alike. ”

“ The authority of the Legislature to repeal a charter is much broader than the judicial authority. It is expressly declared by the Constitution and by the law to be in the discretion of the Legislature. ”

“ Such offshoots of the ruling house as are not of themselves chiefs are of [5] aristocratic rank, and are exempt from obedience to the laws which govern the commonalty. With regard to the common people, the principle of the law is that they are the property of the rulers, and consequently an offence against any of their persons is atoned for by a fine to the chief. ”

“ It is clear, that all subordinate officials must be appointed by the highest regent, whether one or many, and must be subject only to his or their commands. For only the highest government (the regent) is responsible to the nation, and responsible only for the administration of law and justice. But to be so responsible, the regent must have complete control over the selection of those persons through whom justice is administered. ”

“ But when the Legislature proceeds to impose on that officer other duties; when he is directed peremptorily to perform certain acts; when the rights of individuals are dependent on the performance of those acts; he is so far the officer of the law, is amenable to the laws for his conduct, and cannot at his discretion, sport away the vested rights of others. ”

“ The language of the great charter is, that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned but by the lawful judgment of his equals, or by the law of the land. And many subsequent old statutes expressly direct, that no man shall be taken or imprisoned by suggestion or petition to the king or his council, unless it be by legal indictment, or the process of the common-law. ”

“ I mean the freeholders of the kingdom. To do justice to the ministry, they have not yet pretended that any one, or any two, of the three estates, have power to make a new law, without the concurrence of the third. ”

“ The interest or title in the thing being vested in the person who gives the power, remains in him, unless it be conveyed with the power, and can pass out of him only by a regular act in his own name. The act of the substitute, therefore, which, in such a case, is the act of the principal, to be legally effectual, must be in his name, must be such an act as the principal himself would be capable of performing, and which would be valid if performed by him. ”

“ The contrary is well known to you, Mr. Chairman, to be the case in this commonwealth. With respect to mills, roads, and other cases, appeals lie from the inferior to the superior court, as to fact as well as law. ”

“ In a word, it has communicated to them, if ratified by the department which it has specially provided for the making of them, the rank of law—or it has spoken without meaning. And if it has elevated them to that rank, it is idle to attempt to raise them to it by ordinary legislation. ”

“ Plainly, a man who exercises any arbitrary dominion over other men and who claims to be exercising only a delegated power, but cannot show who his principals are, nor, consequently, prove that he has any principals, must be presumed, both in law and reason, to have no principals ”

“ There are officers under the constitution who hold their office by a different tenure—your judges are appointed during good behavior; and from the delicacy and peculiar nature of their trust, it is right it should be so, in order that they may be independent and impartial in administering justice between the Government and its citizens. But the removability of the one class, or immovability of the other, is founded on the same principle, the security of the people against the abuse of power. Does any gentleman imagine that an officer is entitled to his office as to an estate? ”

“ Who, or what, gives them the right to say to the people, "We, who are your agents and servants for one purpose, will undertake to decide that your other agents and servants, appointed by you for another purpose, have transcended the authority you gave them?" The reply would be, I think, not impertinent—"Who made you a judge over another's servants? To their own masters they stand or fall." ”

“ It is also essential to the successful working of this system that the persons intrusted with power in any one of these branches shall not be permitted to encroach upon the powers confided to the others, but that each shall by the law of its creation be limited to the exercise of the powers appropriate to its own department and no other. ”

“ It is the intention of the Constitution that each of the great co-ordinate departments of the government-the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial-shall be, in its sphere, independent of the others. ”

“ The principal and sureties by their recognizance covenanted with the United States that the principal should appear before the court and answer all such matters as might be objected against him at the next term, and from term to term until the cases were disposed of ”

“ Article LVI. The Privy Council shall, in accordance with the provisions for the organization of the Privy Council, deliberate upon important matters of State, when they have been consulted by the Emperor. Chapter V. Article LVII. The Judicature shall be exercised by the Courts of Law according to law, in the name of the Emperor. The organization of the Courts of Law shall be determined by law. Article LVIII. The judges shall be appointed from among those, who possess proper qualifications according to law. ”

“ Under the very peculiar Constitution of this Government, although the citizens owe supreme allegiance to the Federal Government, they owe also a qualified allegiance to the State in which they are domiciled. ”

“ Or 2dly,‭ s‬uppose an Act should be made,‭ ‬to impower the Governor of a Province,‭ “‬without the consent of the Council,” to appoint‭ ‬Judges and other Law-Officers,‭ “‬who shall hold their Commissions “DURING THE PLEASURE OF‭" ‬the Crown,‭ ‬instead of the‭ ‬approved and established‭ legal ‬condition,,‭ “quamdiu se bene gesserint;” ‬thereby setting up WILL AND PLEASURE ABOVE LAW AND‭ ‬JUSTICE,‭ ‬which are the first and most essential Rights of the People! ”

“ It establishes that of all the class of agencies, public or private, whether acting as officers whose powers are created by statute or by other corporations or by individuals, and whether the subject-matter relates to duties imposed by the nation, or the State, or by private corporations, or by individuals, on this one class of agents, and in regard to the exercise of this one class of powers alone, must full, absolute, and uncontrollable authority be conferred on them, or none. ”