Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/130

 118 FEDERAL REPORTER. �January, February, March, and April, 1875, you had no per- sonal knowledge of the state of your account with the Sev- enth National Bank ; of what notes, bills, or drafts were dis- counted for you, nor what eollaterals were. given, nor how money was raised from the bank or checked out ; in short, that you entrusted the entire management of this part of your fiuancial business during; these months to Alexander Ervin, without examination and without statement from him. Am I right?" "Answer, I entrusted such matters to him during that time, as previously, with such additional authority as may have been — as was — given him by the powerof attorney." * * * �There is other evidence showing that the dealings between Ervin, as agent of Morris, and the bank, after the date of the letter of attorney, were as unrestricted as they were before. These subsequent transactions were in the usual course of Morris' business, and enured to his benefit, and he is charge- able with knowledge of them. It does not, therefore, lie in his mouth, or in that of his voluntary assiguee, to say that the powers of Morris were limited by the terms of the letter of attorney. The original transaction with the bank in re- spect to the Wood notes, viz., the discount of the first divi- dpnd, was as much outside the scope of the letter of attor- ney as was the subsequent pledge of the notes. �A written power of attorney may be expanded by the decla- rations or acts of the principal. Whar. on Agency, § 225. "By such expansions," saysthis author, "he may extend his liability beyond the written instrument. Eminently is this the case where the principal, by his acts and statements, leads third parties to believe that he has reposed in the agent trusts beyond those specified in the written power. By such a course the principal is estopped from afterwards disputing his liability to innocent third parties, who were led by such acts or statements on his part to contract with the agent. " Id. �It is elear to me that the conduct of Morris was such as to induce the belief on the part of the officers of the bank that he had'invested Ervin with authority to make the pledge in question., Jn that belief they acted, and Morris received the benefit of the contract. To restore the bank to its former ��� �