174 P. 1164 | Or. | 1918
*529 “By ratifying the unauthorized act, the principal assumes and adopts it as his own, and as has been seen, this adoption extends to the whole of the act, — it goes back to its inception and continues to its legitimate end. * * ‘The ratification operated upon the act ratified precisely as though the authority to do the act had been previously given, except where the rights of third parties have intervened between the act and the ratification.’ And this rule applies as well to corporations as to individuals”: 1 Mechem on Agency (2 ed.), § 483. See, also, 2 C. J. 467, 516.
The essence of the rule is that when the supposed principal, with knowledge of all the facts, ratifies a transaction which was unauthorized when performed, he adopts the act as of the time of its performance and makes it his own, as much as if he had been then and there personally present and executed it himself.
If the defendant employed the plaintiff as her attorney and he performed the services for which he was engaged, an indebtedness arose in favor of the plaintiff which was the proper subject of an accounting between them.
The plaintiff was wrongfully deprived of his right to prove his case. The judgment is reversed for further proceedings. Reversed.