52 Neb. 453 | Neb. | 1897
In the district court of Lancaster county Miss H. Almena Parker sued the Nebraska Wesleyan University. Miss Parker claimed in her petition that the university employed her as a teacher of elocution for one year at a salary of $1,000; that she had rendered the services for which she was employed, and that the compensation had not been paid. She had a verdict and judgment and the university brings the case here for review on error.
1. The university is an educational institution incorporated under the laws of this state. Its affairs are managed by a board of trustees. One Creighton was a member of this-board of trustees and was the chancellor, or
2. The evidence in behalf of Miss Parker all tended to show that the contract between her and the university was made on behalf of the latter by its chancellor and by no one else; and one of her contentions was that he had authority to make this contract. Another one of her contentions was that, if he made the contract without ■authority, the university had ratified it; while the university contended that the chancellor had no authority to make the contract and, if he did make it, the university
By another instruction, the district court told the jury that if they should find the chancellor and Miss Parker made the contract which the latter claimed, and the chancellor was not authorized to make such a contract, still the university would be liable on the contract if the jury should find that its board of trustees ratified the same. This instruction as a proposition of law is unobjectionable, but we have looked in vain throughout this record for one word of evidence which even tends to show that the board of trustees ever had any knowledge, until after this suit was brought, that the chancellor had made the contract with Miss Parker, which she alleges he made and which the jury has found he did malte. Since it was sought to hold the university liable on the contract made by its chancellor on the theory of a ratification of that contract, the giving of the last instruction was prejudicially erroneous, as the jury may have concluded, and probably did conclude, that because Miss Parker had served the university for a year with the knowledge and consent of the board of trustees, therefore they had ratified the contract made. The fact that Miss Parker served the university as a teacher of elocution for a year does not alone justify the inference that the board of trustees knew of the contract existing between her and the chancellor. When it is sought to estop a principal because of
Reversed and remanded.