43 Ga. App. 164 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1931
Horton Brothers, a firm composed of O. E. & M. C. Horton, brought suit against Mrs. Mary L. Tway, alleging that the defendant authorized them to secure a loan on certain property for her, and that after they secured a loan for the defendant she refused to close the transaction, and as a result of such refusal the plaintiffs sustained a loss of $825 commissions. The bill of exceptions assigns error upon the direction of a verdict for the defendant, and upon the ruling out of evidence of three documents, viz.: a writing purporting to authorize Horton Brothers to procure a loan; a writing addressed to Stansbury Realty Company accepting “the proposition made of loan of $16,500.00, . .”; and a writing addressed to Horton Brothers accepting “the loan referred to in application.” All these writings are signed “Mary L. Tway by Chas. W. Tway.”
The record contains no power of attorney from Mary L. Tway to Charles W. Tway authorizing him to sign her name, or to obligate her to make a loan, or to obligate her to pay commissions; and there is not one scintilla of evidence to show that Charles W. Tway had any authority to sign his wife's name to the documents in question, or bind her to comply with such documents or to pay any commissions. Neither of the plaintiffs testified that they had any dealings with Mrs. Tway, and one of the plaintiffs testified: “I never did have any dealings with Mrs. Tway. . . I never had any transaction with her whatever.” Miss Lillian Stansbury, of the firm of Stansbury Realty Company, who was to furnish or procure the money for the loan, testified: “I did not discuss it with Mrs. Tway at all; all of my negotiations were with him. . . I never did call up Mrs. Tway or have any discussion with her at all,”
Under the laws of Georgia a husband, without his wife’s authority, can not in any way bind her separate estate. The plaintiffs should have ascertained that Mr. Tway had power of attorney to bind his wife, or else should have had Mrs. Tway to execute the papers. Mere agency to sell real estate or to procure someone who will’make a loan on real estate does not carry with it power or authority to sign the principal’s name; and this is true even though the agent may state that he has authority to sign the principal’s name. He could make such statement without authority as well a§ he could sign the papers without authority. “Agency can not be
While Mrs. Tway knew that her husband was investigating to ascertain where a loan on this property could be procured, she had a right to presume that if and after he found it he would report to her, and she did not know, so far as any evidence shows, that her husband was going to sign her name to an application, or attempt to bind her to make a loan, or bind her to pay commissions, without her authority; and she did not know that her husband was dealing with the plaintiffs. But even if she had had knowledge of
The court properly excluded the written documents from the evidence and directed a verdict for the defendant.
Judgment affirmed.