18 Wash. 277 | Wash. | 1897
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The plaintiff, who resided at Juneau, Alaska, intending to start an electric light plant in that city, appointed the defendant, Smith, his agent, to proceed to Seattle to purchase the necessary machinery therefor, and entrusted him with a check for $3,000, drawn by Thorp on the Merchants’ Rational Bank of Seattle to enable him to make a purchase, and such arrangements were made with the bank by Smith thereby that a credit of $3,000 was obtained at the bank, subject to Smith’s check. A contract was entered into between the plaintiff represented by Smith, and the defendant, Union Electric Company, whereby said company sold to Thorp certain electric machinery for the sum of $625 in money and $1,000 in notes. The defendant, Hawley, an officer of the company, was the one who made the sale of the machinery for the company, and drew a written contract which was executed by Thorp on one side by Smith as his agent, and upon the other side by the company, which contract stated that the purchase price of the machinery was $3,000, and recited that $2,000 was paid in cash. This contract, with the notes in blank, were sent to Thorp, and he executed the notes and delivered them to the defendant company; Thorp afterwards settled with Smith on the basis of his having paid $3,000 for the property; Smith
The respondent has cited many authorities on the proposition, substantially, that where a third party conspires with an agent to defraud a principal, such third party is liable to the principal for the damages resulting, and this must be conceded, hut we think that the general rule is well settled that a party complaining of deception must show that suchl third party made such false representations with the inten-| tion that he should act upon them, and that it is not enougl to show that false representations were made with a knowl) edge of their falsity. Tacoma v. Tacoma Light and Water Co., 16 Wash. 288 (47 Pac. 738); 5 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, p. 330; Mechem, Agency, § 796; Wells v. Cook, 16 Ohio St. 67 (88 Am. Dec. 436); Marshall v. Hubbard, 117 U. S. 415 (6 Sup. Ct. 806).
There is nothing in this case to bring it within the holding in Oudin v. Crossman, 15 Wash. 519 (46 Pac. 1047). Smith represented to Hawley and the company that he was personally interested with Thorp in the electric light plant,
Reversed and remanded with instructions to render judg- j! ment in favor of the appellants.
Dunbar, Anders and Reavis, JR, concur.
Gordon, J., not sitting.