167 P. 189 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1917
During the period between the fifteenth day of March, 1914, and the fifteenth day of April, 1914, the defendants, F. C. Smith and George W. Metlar, were copartners owning and operating a ranch in Stanislaus County. The partnership was dissolved on the last-named day. The business was conducted at all times in the name of George W. Metlar alone. After the dissolution Metlar, without the knowledge or consent of Smith — unless Smith's consent must be implied — borrowed from his father, Edwin *224 F. Metlar, three sums of money aggregating $497.75, giving notes for these sums signed by himself alone. The trial court found that these sums were loaned to the defendants as copartners but at the request of George W. Metlar, and that the funds were used in payment of indebtedness of the firm incurred before the dissolution of the copartnership. Edwin F. Metlar died before the trial. The claim against the partnership was assigned by Metlar to the plaintiff, who brings this action against both the defendants. The action was not brought upon the notes but directly for the money loaned to the defendants. Judgment went against both defendants, and Smith appeals.
Upon these facts the appellant contends that George W. Metlar was in no way authorized to borrow this money, and in support of this contention relies upon section 2462 of the Civil Code, which provides that a copartner authorized to act in liquidation cannot create new obligations in the name of the partnership.
This section of the code is an expression of a general rule that a partner has no implied authority to bind his copartners to new obligations after dissolution. In the application of this rule the courts have almost universally held that a liquidating partner has no authority after dissolution to sign notes in the name of the copartnership even for money borrowed to pay partnership debts. But this is the full extent to which this doctrine has been carried so far as any case cited to us indicates. The case of Curry v. White,
For the foregoing reasons the judgment must be affirmed, and it is so ordered.
Kerrigan, J., and Richards, J., concurred.
A petition to have the cause heard in the supreme court, after judgment in the district court of appeal, was denied by the supreme court on August 29, 1917. *226