Mercantile Agent Case Study

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An agent was defined by L. Alverstone in The Queen v Kane as ‘any person who happens to act on behalf of another’. In the situation between Chris and Ken the agency was created by an express oral agreement between the principal and an agent. K was authorised to act on C’s behalf to find out the best price obtainable for a bag of gemstones. C limited K’s authority with no authorisation given for the actual sale of chattels. If an agent acts outside his actual authority, he may be liable to his principle for the breach of contract and to the third party for a breach of implied warranty of authority. However, the situation where the principle is not disclosed and there is no written contract as such, the principal might have to bear the losses …show more content…

2(1) of Factors Act 1889 is likely to be the most appropriate, and therefore should be used by D in order to assert her ownership of gems against C. Under s.1(1) FA, mercantile agent is defined as ‘having in the customary course of his business as such agent authority either to sell goods, or to consign goods for the purpose of sale, or to buy goods, or to raise money on the security goods. ‘In order to be considered a mercantile agent in law, the label is not of the essence, as it is a matter of substance. Section 21(2)(a) SGA expressly preserves the FA s.2(1) and sets out the requirements of mercantile agency. A person in question must be independent from the person for whom he is agent, K is acting independently from C. K was also in actual possession of the goods during the sale to D, with consent of the owner,satisfying both requirements. Mercantile agent must be dealing with the goods in the ordinary course of business of mercantile agents generally. The sale to D was made during the business hours; from business premises and Ken was acting in such a way as D would expect a mercantile agent to act, therefore satisfying the requirement of ‘ordinary course of business’ under Oppenheimer. Third party must acquire goods in good faith and without knowledge that mercantile agent lacked authority to sell them. Even though the gemstones were sold for a ‘bargain price’, there is no evidence to suggest that D was acting in bad …show more content…

SGA 1979 s. 2(1) defines a contract for the sale of goods as one in which ‘the seller transfers or agrees to transfer the property in goods to the buyer for a money consideration, called the price.’ As with regards to the statute, Daniele has satisfied the duty to ‘deliver’ the watch to Mark, however M did not satisfy his duty of the buyer to pay the price as his cheque appeared to be worthless. D has been deceived by a worthless cheque, therefore, the title is voidable void and the original owner has good title again if he/she takes steps in voiding the title. However, D might find herself in some difficulty trying to assert the ownership of the watch as the the chattel was resold and the original buyer has

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