ratification
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 206 U.S. 370 - United States v. Conrad Heinszen C · 1907Most cited · 342 citing opinions
after suit brought
The mere commencement of the suit did not change the nature of the right. Hence again, if it be conceded that the capacity to prosecute the pending suit to judgment was, in a sense, a vested right, certainly also the power of the United States to ratify was, to say the least, a right of as high a character.
How the Supreme Court has restated “ratification”
Each Supreme Court definition of “ratification,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “ratification”
Court decisions citing the 5 opinions that defined “ratification” — 705 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 5 definitions, chronological · 1830–1907
- ORIGINAL
If, from the whole evidence in the case, the jury were satisfied that the letter of the 9th of December, connected with the letter of the 14th of January, did sufficiently put the plaintiffs in possession of all the facts relative to such purchase, and the price thereof, and of such deviation, and that the letter of the 7th of March, in answer thereto, was written with a full knowledge and notice of all the facts, and that the plaintiffs did thereupon express their approbation of all the proceedings and acts of the defendants relative to such purchase, then, in point of law, it amounted to a ratification thereof, even though there had been a deviation from the orders in this behalf.
full knowledge required
Ratification is inoperative if the party attempted to be charged was not competent to make the contract in question when the same was made, nor when the supposed acts of ratification were performed, or if the contract was illegal, immoral, or against public policy. Like an individual, a corporation may ratify the acts of its agents done in excess of authority, and such ratification may, in many cases, be inferred from acquiescence in those acts, as well as from express adoption. Such ratification may be by express consent, or by acts and conduct of the principal inconsistent with any other hypothesis than that he approved, and intended to adopt what had been done in his name.
If, with a full knowledge of the facts concerning it, they ratify it, they thereby make themselves a party to it, as much so as if the original agreement had been made with them. And if they ratified it, no new or additional consideration was required to support the ratification, because in adopting the contract, they accepted with it the original consideration on which it was founded, as a sufficient consideration for their adoption of it.
A ratification is, in its effect upon the act of an agent, equivalent to the possession by him of a previous authority. It operates upon the act ratified in the same manner as though the authority of the agent to do the act existed originally. It follows that a ratification can only be made when the party ratifying possesses the power to perform the act ratified.