Alexander v. Culbertson Irrigation & Water Power Company
| Decision Date | 20 February 1901 |
| Docket Number | 9,395 |
| Citation | 85 N.W. 283,61 Neb. 333 |
| Parties | JOHN T. ALEXANDER v. CULBERTSON IRRIGATION & WATER POWER COMPANY |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
ERROR from the district court for Hitchcock county. Tried below before NORRIS, J. Reversed.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
W. R Starr and M. B. Reese, for plaintiff in error.
Fayette I. Foss and Norman Jackson, contra.
This action was brought by John T. Alexander against the Culbertson Irrigation & Water Power Company, a corporation to recover rent claimed to be due upon a lease. The cause was tried to a jury in the district court for Hitchcock county, and resulted in a verdict and a judgment in favor of the defendant.
Of the numerous errors assigned we think there is only one that merits serious consideration. It is conceded that the lease mentioned in the petition was executed by C. J. Jones, the president of the company, but his authority in the premises is denied. The evidence before us shows conclusively that Jones was not authorized to make the lease but it tends strongly to prove that the corporation ratified his act. The court charged the jury that the defendant had power under the articles of incorporation to purchase and take by deed or lease such real estate as should be deemed advisable by its board of directors; that a contract made by an officer of a corporation outside the limits of his authority is not binding unless ratified; that a corporation, like a natural person, can ratify an act which it has authority to perform; that ratification of an act or contract by a corporation consists in the adoption of the act or contract by some one in authority and having power to make such contract or do such act; that acceptance of a contract and resulting benefits with full knowledge on the part of the proper corporate officers of all the material facts, amounts to a ratification. At the request of the defendant the jury were further instructed as follows: "The jury is instructed that the charter of the Culbertson Irrigation & Water Power Company provides that the business of the corporation shall be in the construction and maintenance of a water power and irrigating canal with power to purchase and take by way of deed in fee simple or lease such real estate as the directors shall deem advisable and that a lease or conveyance not executed or ratified by the corporation in the terms prescribed by its charter is void, unless you...
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