198 Iowa 657 | Iowa | 1924
— The mortgage in question was duly executed on January 10, 1922. It was given to- secure a pre-existing debt for $10,000. The mortgagee plaintiff was the son-in-law of the mortgagor, and held his prior obligation for the debt. Such prior obligation was unsecured, and was to mature within a few months. The mortgage and note sued on were drawn to mature in the year 1925. The mortgage was junior to another existing mortgage. At the time of the execution of the mortgage, the plaintiff was under temporary disability from sickness and insanity, and was at that time confined in a hospital. His wife remained at home on the farm, and assumed to take charge of
The appellee argues that the plaintiff ratified the attempted delivery after the removal of his disability. This argument falls short of a solution of the question presented, because the alleged ratification was made only after the death of the mortgagor. If such ratification was essential to render effective the delivery, then the delivery was not effective at the time of the death of the mortgagor. If it was not presumptively effective at that time, we see no way whereby it could become effective by act of the mortgagee thereafter.
' The-real question presented is whether a person under tem'porary disability through insanity or otherwise may, under any •circumstances, and for any purpose, however limited, be represented by another, and whether an assumption of authority by such other-person may, as a matter of law, be presumed to any ¡extent, having reference to the particular circumstances ■ of the particular case. It is broadly true that complete insanity ter
“The fact tbit the husband’s mental or physical condition is such that he is incapable of transacting business does not constitute the wife his general agent nor vest her with a general and unlimited authority as to all his affairs. ’ ’
The same rule is elaborated somewhat in the ease of Evans v. Crawford County F. M. Fire Ins. Co., 130 Wis. 189 (109 N. W. 952), as follows:
‘ ‘ The rule is familiar that a wife, under some circumstances, may act to some extent as agent by implied appointment for her husband; and that such is the case when the latter had left his property in possession of the former, with no one to care therefor but her. In such a case, the authority of the wife is not referable merely to the marital relation, for she has no authority to bind her husband by contract, generally, on that account. The authority springs from the apparent necessities of the situation, and is limited in its scope to that which, under the circumstances, can be reasonably presumed to be the intention of the husband. Her power to act at all is referable to a presumption of appointment, and is fenced about, as in case of any other agency, by the apparent authority appropriate under the circumstances. * * * Beyond the authority mentioned, the wife cannot bind her husband as agent ex necessitate, regardless of whether her attempt to do so is or is not a judicious one from a business standpoint.”
The foregoing citations do not quite reach the point involved. There are exigencies of calamity and disability which not infrequently befall a person, where considerations of humanity require that some friendly person shall assume authority to protect the person and conserve the property of the victim of misfortune. A bystander may assume authority to call a physician to the aid of an unconscious patient. He may likewise assume authority to conserve the property of the unconscious one. "Within appropriate limits, the law will sustain by presumption the authority thus assumed. The scope of such an agency is very limited, and is no broader than the exigencies which call it into being. In this case, the plaintiff was taken
We prefer, however, to put our holding upon the ground first stated: that the law will presume authority; within a very limited scope, of the wife ex necessitate, to conserve the property interest of her husband during his temporary disability; and that the acceptance of this mortgage was fairly within the scope of that authority. It is to be conceded that legal authorities on this proposition exist only by implication. But we find nothing in any authority that runs .counter to it; and we deem it in plain accord with universal, human experience and practice, and that -authority thus -assumed is never challenged by the beneficiary principal. The decree entered below is, accordingly, affirmed. — Affirmed.