Ostensible authority: Difference between revisions
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::---- Terry, the head cook at ''Fawlty Towers'' | ::---- Terry, the head cook at ''Fawlty Towers'' | ||
So when your [[counterparty]] - a legal fiction, after all, a conceptualised bunch of papers filed at [[Companies House]] - signs your carefully crafted | So when your [[counterparty]] - a legal fiction, after all, a conceptualised bunch of papers filed at [[Companies House]] - signs your carefully crafted [[contract]], it — for it is an {{sex|it}} — signs through the [[agency]] of an individual: perhaps an [[employee]], a director or someone operating under a [[power of attorney]]. | ||
How can one be sure that a person who ''says'' they have such an authority ''really'' has it? | How can one be sure that a person who ''says'' they have such an authority ''really'' has it? |
Latest revision as of 13:29, 14 August 2024
“What they eye don’t see, the chef gets away with.”
- ---- Terry, the head cook at Fawlty Towers
So when your counterparty - a legal fiction, after all, a conceptualised bunch of papers filed at Companies House - signs your carefully crafted contract, it — for it is an it — signs through the agency of an individual: perhaps an employee, a director or someone operating under a power of attorney.
How can one be sure that a person who says they have such an authority really has it?
How indeed.
Possible agency scenarios
Here are the possible “undisclosed agency” scenarios at the time of contract:
- Fully disclosed agency: Principal has appointed agent, agent has disclosed agency, agent has disclosed principal.
- Undisclosed principal: Principal has appointed agent, agent has disclosed agency, agent has not disclosed principal.
- Undisclosed agency: Principal has appointed agent, agent has not disclosed agency, agent has not disclosed principal.
- Full principal: Principal has not appointed agent, agent has not disclosed agency, agent has not disclosed principal. (i.e., a fellow who claims ex post facto to have been an agent is better known as a “liar”).