ON THE

LAW OF AGENCY

INCLUDING NOT ONLY A DISCUSSION OF THE GENERAL SUBJECT,

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by

FLOYD R. MECHEM,

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

FOURTH IMPRESSION.

Stereotyped and Printed at the

TO THE

Hon. BENJAMIN F. GRAVES, LL. D.,

FOR MANY YEARS A

JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT

OF MICHIGAN,

THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,

NOT ONLY

AS A TOKEN OF THE GREAT

PERSONAL REGARD

WHICH THE AUTHOR FEELS FOR HIM, BUT ALSO

AS A SLIGHT RECOGNITION

of the appreciation which he, in common with all citizens, feels
for one who, in the course of a career extending through every
grade of judicial office, from the local magistracy of his town
to the chief-justiceship of his State, has so unsparingly
devoted the best energies of a long and honorable
life to one of the highest of human pursuits,-

the pure and impartial administration of
justice; and who now, in voluntary retire-

ment from judicial life, is experienc-
ing that satisfaction which must
come from the consciousness

of such work well done.

PREFACE.

What here follows is the result of an earnest endeavor to make a reliable, useful and comprehensive statement of the law of Agency, including not only its general form, but certain also of its more important special forms. How far this effort has been successful, those who use the book can alone determine.

The plan pursued has been to state in as clear and accurate form as possible, the principles of law involved, supported by a full citation of the authorities, and to illustrate and fortify these statements by examples and quotations from leading and characteristic cases. Upon doubtful questions there has been given, either in the text or in the notes, a more or less full presentation of the conflicting views, and the writer has endeavored to extract from them what seemed to him to be the true principle. This has involved, in many cases, an expression of his own opinion, for which he is, of course, alone responsible.

For the benefit of those to whom complete libraries are not accessible, and they embrace the great majority of the profession, he has, in many instances, made the statements of cases and the excerpts from the opinions of the courts, fuller than might otherwise seem necessary. While this course has added to the size of the book, the writer hopes it has also added proportionately to its value. If he has erred in this regard, it is the error of a too abundant caution. To further increase the practical usefulness of the book he has, at the expense of no little additional labor, given parallel references to those excellent series of reports, the American Decisions, American Reports, American State Reports and Moak's English Reports, as well as to the various Reporters and Law Journals. In several of the States the law of agency has been, to a greater or less extent, reduced