Short notes: agency by ratification; supervening impossibility; rights of the bailor

(i) Agency by ratification. A person may act for another without having been asked or authorised to. The person in whose name he acted can then choose to adopt the act or refuse it; if he adopts it, the act binds him exactly as if he had authorised it beforehand. There must first be something that can be adopted: an act that is void, or illegal, cannot be adopted afterwards, so if an agent sells liquor on his behalf in a State where its sale is banned, there is nothing he can ratify. The adoption must also be made soon enough to be fair to the other party, and that party must be told of it. The Act then adds its own conditions: the adoption may be in words or inferred from conduct (s. 197); the principal must have known the material facts, since an adoption made in ignorance of them is not binding (s. 198); he must take the transaction as a whole, burdens with benefits (s. 199); and ratification cannot be used to injure a third person (s. 200): where a third party's interests are affected the doctrine does not apply, and in particular the adoption cannot relate back so as to defeat rights a third party has acquired in the meantime.

(ii) Doctrine of supervening impossibility (s. 56). A contract that could be performed when it was made becomes void if, afterwards, performance becomes impossible, or unlawful through an event the promisor could not prevent; both parties are then released. It applies in three main situations:

• the law changes: a firm agrees to ship onions abroad, and before shipment the government bans onion exports;
• the thing the contract depends on ceases to exist: a buyer contracts for the whole of a particular orchard's mango crop, and a hailstorm destroys the crop before it can be picked;
• the person whose own skill was bargained for can no longer act: a sculptor commissioned to make a portrait bust dies before finishing it.

Performance that has merely become harder or costlier is not impossible, so the contract stands.

(iii) Rights of the bailor, in the order of the Act:

1. To sue the bailee to enforce all his duties and liabilities, for instance for loss caused by his failure to take reasonable care of the goods (ss. 151–152).
2. To end the bailment (s. 153): the contract is voidable at the bailor's option if the bailee does any act with respect to the goods that is inconsistent with the conditions of the bailment, for instance using them in a way the terms do not allow; the bailor ends it by giving the bailee notice.
3. To be compensated for damage caused by unauthorised use of the goods (s. 154), or where the bailee mixes them with his own goods without the bailor's consent: if they can be separated, the bailee bears the cost of separation and any damage from the mixture (s. 156); if they cannot, he must compensate the bailor for the loss of the goods (s. 157).
4. To take back goods lent free of charge whenever he wishes, even before the agreed time, by giving the bailee notice (s. 159), compensating the bailee only if the early return costs him more than he gained from the loan.
5. To sue a third person who wrongfully deprives the bailee of the use or the possession of the goods, or injures them (s. 180); whatever is recovered in such a suit is shared between bailor and bailee according to their respective interests (s. 181).