Ratification

An agreement to adopt an act performed by another for us. Express ratifications are those made in express and direct terms of assent. Implied ratifications are such as the law presumes from the acts of the principal; as, if Peter buy goods for James, and the latter, knowing the fact, receive them and apply them to his own use. Ratification of a contract implies an existing person on whose behalf the contract might have been made at the time. There cannot, in law, be a ratification of a contract which could not hav6 been made binding on the ratifier at the time it was made, because the ratifier was not then in existence.

Mc Arthur v. Print. Co., 48 Minn. 319, 51 N. W. 216, 31 Am. St. Rep. 653.

A party from whom a contract has been wrung by duress must disclaim it on the recovery of freedom, subsequent recognition is the equivalent of ratification; Kternback v. Friedman, 23 Misc. Rep. 173, 50 N. Y. Supp. 1025. A ratification, to be efficacious, must be made by a party who had power to do the act in the first place, and it must be made with knowledge of the material facts; Western N. Bank v. Armstrong, 152 U. S. 346, 14 Sup. Ct. 572, 38 L. Ed. 470. Where there has been actual and positive fraud, or the adverse party has acted mala fide there can be no such thing as a con- In g of a bond by an obligor whose signature lias been forged, does not render him liable thereon, there being no new consideration; Mc Hugh y.

Schuylkill Co., 67 Pa. 391, 5 Am. Rep. 445; Workman v. Wright, 33 Ohio St. 405, 31 Am. Rep. 546; Pollock, Contr. 114.

But if a contract be merely against conscience, then if a party, being fully informed of all the circumstances of it and objections to it, voluntarily confirms it, his ratification will stand; Negley v. Lindsay, 67 Pa. 217, 5 Am. Rep. 427; Hefner v. Vandolah, 62 111.

483, 14 Am. Rep. 106.

As to the ratification of a contract made or an act done by a person claiming to act as the agent, and as to the creation of an agency by the ratification of acts previously done, see Principal and Agent. As to ratification of treaties, see Treaty.