What Is Law? Term Paper

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Agency Law

What are the essential differences among the relationships of principal and agent, employer and employee and employer and independent contractor?

Under contract law, the employer is referred to as the principal and the employee is referred to as the agent. Regardless of whether the agent is the employee of the principal or is an independent contractor for the principal, the same principles apply in holding the principal liable on contracts to third parties. In contrast, employer/employee relationships and employer/independent contractor relationships typically apply in tort law.

The difference between an employee and an independent contractor is that the principal or employer has the right to control the manner and the method by which the person performs his tasks. (Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 v. U.S.730 (1989). Independent contractors typically control their own schedules and progress on a work assignment.

Identify, define and discuss the categories of authority by which an agent can bind a principal and a third party in contract.

Generally, a person is not responsible for the acts of another who assumes to represent him. He will be held liable only if he has made the other his representative and given her the power to bind him. Such authority can arise in three ways: (1) through actual authority granted by the principal to the agent; (2) through apparent authority arising from the principal's holding out of another as his agent to third parties; and (3) through ratification authority, power given after the act has been performed.
If one of the three above-mentioned types of authority exists, then the principal is liable to the third party in contract.

Actual authority is authority that the agent reasonably thinks she possesses based on the principal's dealings with her. In determining whether the agent had actual authority, we need to look at (1) whether the requisite formalities, if any have been met; (2) what type of actual authority (express or implied) is present; and (3) whether the authority has been terminated.

Express authority is that authority contained within the four corners of the written or oral agency agreement between the principal and the agent. Implied authority is authority that the agent reasonably believes she has based on the actions of the principal. Examples of implied authority are (1) implied when it is the custom and usage of a particular….....

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