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2 S.C.L. 269

Dawson v. Fraser

Court of Appeals of South Carolina · decided 1800-07-01

ASSUMPSIT for goods sold, &c. 96/. sterling. Tried at Georgetown, April, 1800, before Bay, J. In this case it appeared, that Pourie, one of the plaintiffs, did business as a factor, in the sale and disposal of crops, &c. independent of the mercantile transactions of the house of Pourie and Dawson ; and that the defendant had consigned rice to him for sale, to a much larger amount than the debt claimed in this suit; and that while the rice was in his hands, he took up goods…

Decided 1800-07-01

By the Court.

¶1Where a factor is authorized generally to transact all the business of a planter, as to buying and selling for the use and account of a plantation, in such case the act of the factor will bind his principal. But if a factor is employed to sell rice or other produce, and to send goods to his principal, he cannot bind him by taking up goods for his principal, and the merchant who trusts him must look to the factor for his money.

¶2If, however, a planter was by any subsequent act to ratify such a contract, it would be a strong presumptive evidence *272that he had been so authorized to make it, and would be binding on the principal; but the omission or mistake in an item in the settlement of accounts between the factor and his principal, will not amount to any such ratification of a contract with a third person.

¶3Let the rule for a new trial be discharged.

Present, Grimke, Bat, Johnson and Trezevant.
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