Walker v. Pacific Mobile Homes, Inc.

413 P.2d 3, 68 Wash. 2d 347, 1966 Wash. LEXIS 741
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedApril 7, 1966
Docket38047
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 413 P.2d 3 (Walker v. Pacific Mobile Homes, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walker v. Pacific Mobile Homes, Inc., 413 P.2d 3, 68 Wash. 2d 347, 1966 Wash. LEXIS 741 (Wash. 1966).

Opinions

Hale, J.

Plaintiff left his trailer to be sold on consignment. One of the defendant’s salesmen sold it and absconded. Defendant, disclaiming responsibility for the consignment*, appeals the $1,290.51 judgment. .

The case turns on whether the court properly found from conflicting evidence that defendant’s salesmen acted within their apparent or ostensible authority. Plaintiff Walker owned a 25-foot, 1953 Mainliner trailer in Seattle. Deciding to sell it and return to his former home in Oregon, he went to several trailer lots to see if the dealers would handle it on consignment. He found no dealers interested in a consignment until he met Robert Stewart at the lot of defendant Pacific Mobile Homes at South 140th and Pacific Highway.„ ..

At the trailer lot where plaintiff first talked to Stewart, he noticed a large sign designating it as Pacific Mobile Homes, Inc., an office, a number of trailers on display, and observed that Mr. Stewart appeared to be the sole employee in attendance. Behind the lot was a large trailer park known as “Southgate Trailer Park.” Plaintiff told Stewart he would sell on consignment if he could get a net price of $1,500, and Stewart told him that he was too busy moving the trailers around at' the moment to complete the deal but would pick up the trailer in a few days.

A few days later, Stewart came with a truck to plaintiff’s residence and towed the trailer to the Pacific Mobile Homes lot where plaintiff on several occasions saw it among the other trailers displayed there. May 27, 1959, plaintiff stopped at the trailer lot where he again found Stewart alone in the office, and suggested that, since he intended to go to Oregon for a while, some sort of writing should be made out. Thereupon, plaintiff says, Stewart got a blank form having the legend “Trailer Consignment Agreement” [349]*349in bold-faced type across the top, filled it out in ink, but, in barely legible handwriting, designated thereon Southgate Trailers as consignee. Plaintiff signed the consignment agreement, stating at the trial that, being primarily concerned at the time with the provisions as to net price and the avoidance of storage charges if the trailer was not sold, he did not notice the name of the consignee.

• About one month later, a Robert Henderson telephoned plaintiff in Oregon, asking if plaintiff had left his trailer on consignment with Stewart at Pacific Mobile Homes and explained that Stewart was no longer with the firm but that he, Henderson, was the new manager. Henderson then told plaintiff they still had the trailer and had lined up a possible buyer. A few weeks later, plaintiff returned to Seattle from Oregon and tálked to Henderson at the trailer lot. Plaintiff saw his trailer on this occasion still on display among the others and testified that Henderson, like Stewart before him, was there alone at the office and trailer lot.

Henderson again told him that he had a likely deal pending, and plaintiff went back to Oregon to have the deal confirmed by mail. He received a letter on the business stationery of Pacific Mobile Homes, Inc., giving the corporation’s main office address at Edmonds and the branch office at 140th and Pacific Highway South, and containing also an installment note signed by one Korsmoe as maker. The letter, handwritten by Bob Henderson, dated July 25, 1959, explained that, after four payments, the enclosed note would be discounted and balance thereof paid in cash. Each month for the next three months, plaintiff received a monthly payment in the form of a check signed by Henderson, and when these ceased he returned to the trailer lot to inquire about the unpaid balance.

He found that Henderson had actually sold the trailer not to Korsmoe but to one Anderson for $1,500 cash, and, save for the three payments totaling $209.41, had absconded with the balance. After more than a year spent in tracing him, plaintiff located Henderson in the penitentiary at Walla Walla.

[350]*350Henry M. Shelly, president of Pacific Mobile Homes, testified that his company maintained a small one-room office on the South 140th street trailer lot; that the lot had a sign 28 feet high and 14 feet long with “Pacific Mobile Homes, Inc.” on it; that he visited the lot to check it about three times a week. He said that Stewart worked at the lot from April to July, 1959, and Henderson started to work there in June, but ordinarily there would be only one salesman on duty at any one time.

He said that neither had authority to complete a sale without approval of himself or the company sales manager and that all sales documents had to be signed by himself personally. He said too that the company forbade its salesmen to take trailers on consignment; that neither he nor the company had any record or knowledge of either the plaintiff’s trailer, the consignment arrangement, or any other phases of the transaction; that he had never, during his periodic inspections, seen plaintiff’s trailer on the lot. Only on a few occasions, he said, had his company taken trailers for sale on consignment and that all salesmen were well acquainted with this company policy.

Although the agent’s authority must be established through proof of the principal’s conduct, representations or actions (Charette v. American Surety Co. of New York. 49 Wn.2d 777, 307 P.2d 252 (1957)), and cannot be proved by the admissions of the agent (Foote v. Grant, 56 Wn.2d 630, 354 P.2d 893 (1960)), the trial court, in the present case, had before it substantial evidence from which to find apparent authority.

We believe the evidence warranted findings and conclusions that Pacific Mobile Homes had clothed Stewart and later Henderson with apparent or ostensible authority to take the trailer on to the lot for sale on consignment and to collect the purchase money therefor. The salesman’s solitary presence in the company office and about the lot on several occasions, among numerous trailers on display, beneath a sign conspicuously proclaiming the whole to be an enterprise of Pacific Mobile Homes, Inc., and his towing [351]*351plaintiff’s trailer to the trailer lot and putting it on display there, allowed a person of ordinary business prudence to reasonably assume that the salesman had authority from Pacific Mobile Homes, Inc., to buy, sell, receive and deliver trailers for cash, on credit, consignment, or in exchange. Then, too, the salesman’s untrammeled access to and use of his principal’s letterhead, stationery and business forms, and his seeming control of the office and lot, fortify the idea of apparent authority.

Authority to perform particular services for a principal carries with it the implied authority to perform the usual and necessary acts essential to carry out the authorized services. Larson v. Bear, 38 Wn.2d 485, 230 P.2d 610 (1951). One dealing in good faith with an agent who appears to be acting within the scope of his authority is not bound by undisclosed limitations on the agent’s power. Feely Lumber Co. v. Bookstaver-Burns Lumber Co., 181 Wash. 503, 43 P.2d 953 (1935).

Our decision in Lamb v. General Associates, Inc., 60 Wn.2d 623, 374 P.2d 677

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Chi. Title Ins. Co. v. Office of Ins. Comm'r
Washington Supreme Court, 2013
Chicago Title Insurance v. Office of the Insurance Commissioner
309 P.3d 372 (Washington Supreme Court, 2013)
Hoglund v. Meeks
170 P.3d 37 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2007)
Sipes v. Kinetra, L.L.C.
137 F. Supp. 2d 901 (E.D. Michigan, 2001)
Interlode Constructors, Inc. v. Bryant
974 P.2d 89 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 1999)
King v. Riveland
886 P.2d 160 (Washington Supreme Court, 1994)
State v. Parada
877 P.2d 231 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1994)
Smith v. Hansen, Hansen & Johnson, Inc.
818 P.2d 1127 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1991)
Amtruck Factors v. International Forest Products
795 P.2d 742 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1990)
Emrich v. Connell
705 P.2d 288 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1985)
ICD Export Corp. v. Schmidt Bros.
663 P.2d 868 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1983)
Schoonover v. Carpet World, Inc.
588 P.2d 729 (Washington Supreme Court, 1978)
Alexander Myers & Co. v. Hopke
565 P.2d 80 (Washington Supreme Court, 1977)
Barnes v. Treece
549 P.2d 1152 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1976)
State v. I'ANSON
529 P.2d 188 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1974)
Moss v. Vadman
463 P.2d 159 (Washington Supreme Court, 1969)
Walker v. Pacific Mobile Homes, Inc.
413 P.2d 3 (Washington Supreme Court, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
413 P.2d 3, 68 Wash. 2d 347, 1966 Wash. LEXIS 741, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walker-v-pacific-mobile-homes-inc-wash-1966.