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66 N.H. 175

19 A 570

Batchelder v. Libbey

Supreme Court of New Hampshire

Decided December 5, 1889

Supreme Court of New Hampshire · decided 1889-12-05

Assumpsit, to recover $144.50, the price of a yoke of oxen. Jesseman, having twenty-four oxen, advertised them for sale at auction April 2, 1887, but, having sold some of them before that day, he procured Batchelder to put in six of his oxen to make the number good. The auctioneer offered for sale a pair of Batchelder’s oxen, and called for bids.

Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently May 1965

2 state decisions

Relies on Fiske v. McGregory · M'Comb v. Wright

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1889-12-05

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Blodgett, J.

¶1 The defendant, having bid in his own name, and without disclosing his agency to the owner or auctioneer, became personally responsible for the completion of the sale. His subsequent notification to the clerk that his bid was for Merrill, *176 and the entry of the sale to Merrill by the clerk, did not change his responsibility. The extent of the clerk’s authority in this respect being merely to record the sale as declared by and under the direction of the auctioneer, the substitution of Merrill for the defendant in the record, contrary to the declaration of the auctioneer, and without his direction or knowledge as well as without the direction or knowledge of Batchelder or Jesseman, was not within the scope of the clerk’s authority, and had no effect as against the plaintiff; nor is his right of action against the defendant as purchaser affected by the clerk’s uncommunicated knowledge to the contrary, because the clerk, as such, cannot be legally regarded as agent of the plaintiff for the purpose of charging him with such knowledge. See, generally, McComb v. Wright, 4 Johns. Ch. 669 ; Nat. Fire Ins. Co. v. Loomis, 11 Paige 431; Gill v. Bicknell, 2 Cush. 358; Fiske v. McGregory, 34 N. H. 419; 1 Par. Cont. (5th ed.) 41; Bro. Fr., s. 369; Sto. Ag., s. 126; 8 Wait Act. & Def. 58.

¶2 Judgment for the plaintiff.

Bingham, J., did not sit: the others concurred.
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