60 N.Y.S. 431 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1899
The action is brought to recover a balance of salary alleged to be due to the plaintiff. It is conceded that he was employed at a salary
It is now settled in this State that an agreement made in behalf of a corporation about to be formed, although not initially binding upon it, may, by the company’s acts, after it attains a legal existence, be so ratified as to become a corporate obligation. This ratification may be effected by the person who entered into the original agreement, if that person, at the time of the ratification, has become an executive officer of the company, entitled in that capacity to bind it by such an agreement. (Oakes v. The Cattaraugus Water Company, 143 N. Y. 430.) This agreement in question was certainly one which the defendant’s directors had power to make or to ratify. Hiring employees and allowing them vacations with a continuance of salary are among the commonest features of corporate management. This being so, the making or ratification of such an agreement by the defendant’s president wasjprima facie valid, and threw upon the defendant the burden of showing that it was without authority. (Patterson v. Robinson, 116 N. Y. 193.) This burden the defendant made no attempt to sustain.
It is argued that this money was a mere gratuity, and' that the promise to ¡Day it was but an executory promise to make a gift, and was wholly without consideration. That is an erroneous view of the situation. The defendant agreed to pay a specified sum for a specified period of service, which did not include the time that plaintiff was away. The plaintiff’s actual services were a sufficient consideration for the whole sum agreed to be paid.
The judgment and order appealed from should be affirmed, with costs.
Van Brunt, P. J., Patterson and O’Brien, JJ., concurred.
Judgment and order affirmed, with costs.