40 Kan. 281 | Kan. | 1888
Lead Opinion
Opinion by
Plaintiffs in error brought this action to recover $1,350, the price of flour sold by them to C. R. Barnes, or the C. R. Barnes Milling Company; and at the trial a demurrer was sustained to the plaintiffs’ evidence. John Getty & Co. were a milling firm at Ellsworth, Kansas, and the defendant, the C. R. Barnes Milling Company, was a corporation engaged in the milling business at Clay Center. About July 27, 1885, C. R. Barnes went to Ellsworth and purchased of the plaintiffs sixty thousand pounds of flour, at $2.25 per hundred-weight, to be paid for in thirty days. At
The charter under which the defendant company was doing business was as follows: “Thepurposes for which this corporation is formed are for the conversion and disposal of agricultural products by means of mills, elevators, stores, or otherwise.” The first question is, under this charter, had the president or general manager of the company, Avithout special direction from his company, the right to go upon the market and purchase flour? In our judgment this question must be decided by determining whether flour is an agricultural prod-
It has been held that a railroad company may purchase coal land and engage in coal mining if thereby it can supply its wants cheaper than by purchasing on the market. So it may under peculiar circumstances charter or purchase steamships in connection with its business, where it is shown that such acts facilitate and add to the general purpose and scope of the business. So it has been held that railroad companies may build and manage hotels, reading rooms, book stalls, where those things tend to the comfort of its employés or patrons ; that it may also build docks, elevators and warehouses for the storage of property transported, and erect workshops for the manufacture and repair of machinery. But these things can only be done where the peculiar circumstances of the case make them applicable. (Lyde v. Eastern Rly. Co., 36 Beav. 16; Hoagland v. Hannibal Rld. Co., 39 Mo. 451; Pearce v. Madison Rld. Co., 21 How. 441.) While a railroad company may purchase and mine coal for its own use, yet it cannot engage in that business for sale and speculation, and it can make no difference that this transaction would be remunerative to the company. (Att’y Gen. v. Great Northern Rly. Co., 1 Dr. & Sm. 154; Alexander v. Couldwell, 38 N. Y. 480.) So in the present case, under peculiar circumstances
The next question is, did the acts of the president of the corporation, in depositing this flour at Kansas City, and the purchase of wheat on the market, ratify the purchase? The
We are therefore of the opinion that the judgment of the court below should be affirmed.
By the Court: It is so ordered.
Concurrence Opinion
The only question which I think important to consider is, whether there was any evidence introduced upon the trial which fairly tended to make the milling corporation liable for the flour purchased by C. R. Barnes, the president and general manager of the corporation. The corporation was engaged “in the conversion and disposal of agricultural products, by means of mills, elevators, stores, or otherwise.” Under the terms of its charter, the corporation had the power to carry on the business of buying grain, (not flour,) and of making flour and meal, and selling and disposing of its grain, flour and meal, through its elevators, stores and otherwise. Therefore, the purchase of flour — a manufactured article — was not the usual and ordinary business of the corporation. It is clear that the flour purchased was not received by, nor did it go to the benefit of the corporation. It was shipped to Kansas City, Missouri, to C. R. Barnes, and not to the milling corporation at Clay Center, where the business of the corporation was carried on. It was also shown that whatever C. R. Barnes may have represented to Mr. Getty, he was, in fact, buying the flour for himself, and not for the corporation; therefore, the contract between Getty and Barnes was unauthorized by the corporation; and, if Barnes used the corporate credit in the transaction for his own .per
As the contract for the purchase of the flour was for the personal benefit of Barnes and no one else, and manifestly to the injury of the corporation at the time of the alleged ratification, clear evidence of ratification would be required before any ratification would be presumed. If the contract had been for the benefit of the corporation, a contrary presumption could be indulged in; and in such a case, very slight evidence of acquiescence would have been sufficient to give validity to the purchase.
For the foregoing reasons, with some hesitation, I concur in the judgment ordered to be entered.