Adams v. Fraser, 742.
| Citation | 82 F. 211 |
| Decision Date | 02 August 1897 |
| Docket Number | 742. |
| Parties | ADAMS v. FRASER. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Charles J. Hughes, Jr., Tyson S. Dines, and Branch H. Giles, for appellant.
Henry J. O'Bryan (Edmund J. Moffat with him on the brief), for appellee.
Before CALDWELL, SANBORN, and THAYER, Circuit Judges.
John Fraser, the appellee, brought a suit in equity against the appellant, Alonzo P. Adams, in the court below, to recover 1,000 sterling, which he had paid, and to obtain the surrender and cancellation of an acceptance for 600, which he had delivered, to Adams in part payment of the purchase price of certain patent rights which Fraser had agreed to buy from the Citizens' Match Company, a corporation in business in the city of Troy, in the state of New York. The appellee alleged in his bill that he had been induced to pay this money and to make and deliver the acceptance by the false statement of the appellant that he was authorized by the Citizens' Match Company to receive them in part payment of the purchase price of the patent rights under Fraser's contract with it, and by other misrepresentations that are not material to the disposition of the case in this court. Adams admitted that he represented that he had the authority alleged and insisted that his representation was true, and the appellee proved that he was ignorant of the extent of Adams' authority, and was induced by his statement to pay the money and deliver the acceptance. The circuit court held that Adams had no authority to collect or receive any part of the purchase price owing to the match company under its contract with Fraser, and entered the decree prayed by the bill. Adams appealed, and the only question he presents is whether or not he had the authority which he claimed.
On January 20, 1886, the Citizens' Match Company made an agreement, and on the next day it made an amendatory agreement, with the appellant. Both these contracts were in writing, and the provisions of them which are material to the question at issue here are: That the match company authorized Adams to sell certain English letters patent which it owned for not less than $100,000, and to negotiate sales of them at a less price, if, after diligent effort, he found the price of $100,000 was excessive in amount; that the company covenanted to pay him 20 per cent. commission on the first $50,000 which it realized from these sales, and 15 per cent on the next $50,000, and to make any assignments and conveyances required to carry out the sale he negotiated that Adams agreed to pay his own expenses, to make, and ultimately to sell to the company, a machine which should embody some of the inventions secured by the patents, but the company agreed that, if it refused to make or ratify bona fide offers for or sales of the patents for amounts less than $100,000 which, together with the amounts of the sales of other European patents, which the corporation, by the same agreement, authorized him to sell, would amount in the aggregate to $150,000, then it would pay him $1,000 per month for the time he spent in negotiating such declined offers and that the corporation would not be liable to pay any commissions on any sale of any of the patents, unless the purchase money arising from such sale had been paid to the company, or to such person or persons as it should authorize to receive and receipt for the same, before February 1, 1887. Adams went to London, and negotiated for and obtained from Fraser an offer to purchase the English patents for 8,000 sterling. He reported this offer to the corporation on May 10, 1886, and the company cabled its acceptance. Thereupon, on May 18, 1886, a written contract was made between the match company, by Adams, as its agent, and...
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