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Introduction. 5

promises or representations not authorized. Is his principal

bound thereby ? So also a servant appointed for a purpose

entirely foreign to the creation of obligations, may commit a

breach of one while about his master's business. Is the mas-

ter bound ? These and similar problems are those that are

treated under the title of agency.

В§ 2. Meaning and scope of agency.

Agency is a term signifying the legal relations established

when one man is authorized to represent and act for another

and does so represent and act for another. The one repre-

sented may be comprehensively termed the constituent, and

the one representing him may be termed the representative.

More specifically the constituent is called either a principal

or a master, while the representative is called either an agent

or a servant. Agency therefore divides itself into two main

heads, — the law of principal and agent, and the law of master

and servant.

The authority is usually conferred upon the representative

by the will of the constituent, but in a few instances it is con-

ferred by the law in consequence of an existing relation or

status of the two. Historically, the relation probably origi-

nated in status, and may have rested upon a fiction of

Identity,! but with the growth of individualism and the

progress from status to contract, the relation has come to be

mainly a consensual one. Yet the agency of a wife in the

purchase of necessaries is a distinct remnant of the older

doctrine,^ and there has been an anomalous revival of it in

our day in the identification of a child with its parent or

guardian in cases of contributory negligence.^

The act which the representative is authorized to do may

be either, — (1) to represent the will of the constituent to third

persons with a view to establishing new legal relations be-

tween such persons and the constituent by creating voluntary

1 O. W. Holmes, Jr., 4 Ilarv. Law Rev. 345; 5 Ihid. 1. But see 2

Pollock and Maitland's Hist, of Eng. Law, 225-227, 530, and 7 Harv.

Law Rev. 107.

2 Post, в§ 55.

В« Hartfield v. Roper, 21 Wend. (N. Y.) 614.

6 Agency.

primary obligations with their correlative rights, or (2) to

perform for the constituent operative or mechanical duties

not intended to create any new legal relations between him

and third persons. When the representative is employed for

the first purpose, he is called an agent, and his constituent is

called a principal. When he is employed for the second

purpose, he is called a servant, and his constituent is called a

master.

The legal consequences of creating an agency may l^e three-

fold : (1) to establish new legal relations between the constitu-

ent and representative ; (2) to establish new legal relations

between the constituent (principal) and third persons, that is,

to impose voluntary ])rimary obligations u{)on the principal in

favor of third persons, or give him correlative right against

third persons, or to disturb existing legal relations between

the constituent (master) and third persons, that is, to cause

a breach of existing primary obligations ; (3) to create new

legal relations between the representative (agent) and third

persons, or to disturb existing legal relations between the rep-

resentative (servant) and third persons.

Agency, then, is the title under which we treat of the doc-

trines of representation in the law of obligation. Under the

head of principal and agent, we treat of the creation of

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