27 Pa. Super. 257 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1904
Opinion by
The plaintiff’s action was based on a claim for professional services alleged to have been rendered at the request of R. H. Schoenen, an agent of the defendant; and the validity of the claim depends upon the authority of the agent.
A Mrs. Kessler received an injury in getting off a car.
Neither the acts nor the declarations of the agent in the premises are competent to establish his authority. Nor does the ■ plaintiff himself seem to have considered his authority sufficient, for, when he asked the agent about his pay and was informed that the company would pay, he said: “ I would like to have authority from one of the higher officials.” The next day the agent told him that the president of the company had ratified the arrangement, and thereafter the plaintiff seems to have rested on that assurance. But the agent’s assertion of the president’s ratification is no better than his promise on behalf of the company. The plaintiff’s contention is, that having shown that Schoenen was the claim agent of the defendant at the time he made the contract with the plaintiff for professional services, the plaintiff had a right to presume that he had authority to so bind the defendant. We are not warranted in holding that a claim agent is presumptively invested with authority to employ surgeons at the expense of his principal. Presumably the duty of claim agents is to adjust claims against their employers, not to create new obligations. It was obligatory' on the plaintiff to show that' the agent’s authority comprehended such conduct as the engagement of a surgeon.
The evidence relating to the employment by the same agent
The accident reports sent in by the motorman, conductor and road officer, do not amount to notice to the company that the plaintiff had been called to attend the person injured at the expense of the company. One of the reports states that the patient after being carried into the house, was attended by Dr. C. F. Welden; another, that “O. F. Welden, doctor, was summoned; ” the third merely states “ doctor summoned.” In none of them is it reported that the plaintiff was engaged or was acting on behalf of the company.
On the evidence presented, the court was not in error in directing a verdict in favor of the defendant. The judgment is, therefore, affirmed.