Limerick of the Week: Watteau v. Fenwick

It is worth teaching Business Associations just for this case.  It is the perfect illustration of the doctrine of inherent authority.  It has all of the necessary ingredients: a general agent for an undisclosed principal who exceeds his authority by entering into a contract for goods he was not authorized to purchase.  It also has a special added ingredient: Bovril. 

As I tell my students, Bovril was developed by French scientists after the Franco-Prussian War because they thought that concentrated beef extract would enhance the fighting ability of French soldiers.  In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique, I instruct my students to go to the Google.com home page, enter “French military victories” and then hit the “I’m feeling lucky” button.  It’s a crowd pleaser. 

Anyhew, here’s the Limerick:

Watteau v. Fenwick

Inherent authority imposes
Liability where no one discloses
The one whose dinars
Are owed for cigars . . .
And other goods that offend noses.

[Jeremy Telman]