83 Iowa 202 | Iowa | 1891
The case involves a consideration to ■some extent of the rules of law applicablp to members of voluntary associations (unincorporated) for debts incurred. The defendant Walker was the alleged vice-president of the association. One E. R. Shankland was its secretary, and generally conducted the business ■of advertising and other preparations for the fair. The fair was prominently advertised in two of the leading ■daily papers of the city of Dubuque, and one of them was taken at the store of the defendant, and also at his residence, in which was a column of advertisement in large display type, with the names of the officers and directors of the fair, the defendant being designated as vice-president. The defendant’s answer is a denial of his being a member or officer of the association, and his testimony is-a denial of his having any business relation therewith. The assignments in the case bring in question the correctness of some of the instructions .given and refused, and also rulings upon the admission ■of evidence. We may be somewhat aided in our consideration to have in view some unquestioned rules of law announced by the district court in the case, wherein the facts Pssential to a recovery are stated. The correctness of the fifth- instruction given by the court is not questioned in argument, and stands, for the purposes of the case, as announcing correct rules, and we may add that they are justified by authority.
The' instruction is as follows: “5. Parties to unincorporated associations are not holden to contracts
It is said in this connection that the “legal effect -of the evidence offered is” that Walker did not so ratify the act of Shankland in advertising or holding him out as an officer, and that the appellant for that reason was entitled to a dismissal of the case. This involves an inquiry as to the legal effect of the evidence bearing on the question of the defendant’s liability; that is, is it such that the court should, as a matter of law, have determined the defendant not liable? It may be said from the record that there was no express agreement between the defendants as to the organization or conduct of the association; that the understanding must have been mainly through interviews with Shankland in regard to the fair; the public nature of the enterprise, the publicity given thereto through advertisements, and the public announcement as to who were the promoters thereof. Mr. Walker -does not say he did not see the advertisements in the papers of Dubuque including his name as vice-president of the fair, but he does say he does not recollect it; that he probably saw the advertisement, but gave it no attention; and has no recollection that he saw his
It is said that “participation in holding the fair would not amount to ratification;” that he must have participated with full knowledge of the liability he was incurring thereby. The liability is the legal inference from the facts stated in the instruction. It is the law applicable to the facts, and that the defendant was bound to know. It is further urged that the instruction is faulty, misleading, in that it speaks of the acts of the defendant at the fair as an “employe.” There is no evidence of his being an employe in the sense of “working for hire,” but the term “employ” has a different meaning at times, — as, -“to use,” “to occupy,” “to intrust;” and under the evidence there could not well have been any misunderstanding by the jury as to what was meant by the term “employe.”
It is not important that we consider the objections to the evidence further. The rulings are in the main correct, and in no case is there error to the prejudice of the defendant. The judgment is affirmed.