- ratification
- Giving effect by approval. Treating as good or authorized an act which otherwise might be disavowed or even treated as a tort. 18 Am J2d Conv § 73. A confirmation of an act already performed, not an authorization of an act to be performed. Barker v Chesterfield, 102 Mass 127, 128. An express promise or a promise implied from conduct by which a party to a contract otherwise voidable accepts it and undertakes to be bound by it. Crawford v Gordon, 88 Wash 553, 153 P 363. Accepting the benefits of a transaction with knowledge of fraud inducing the same by the other party. 37 Am J2d Fraud §§ 332 et seq. The affirmance by a person, upon reaching his majority, of a contract made by him during his infancy. 27 Am J1st Inf §§ 11 et seq. In the law of agency:--the adoption or affirmance by a person of a prior act which did not bind him, but which was done or professed to be done on his account, thus giving effect to the act, as to some or all persons, as if originally authorized. Rogers v Beiderwell, 175 Kan 223, 262 P2d 814, 45 ALR2d 578; Gulf Refining Co. v Travis, 201 Miss 294, 30 So 2d 398. The essence of ratification is approval. Jordan v Beaumont (Tex Civ App) 337 SW2d 115, error ref n r e. To ratify the act of an agent means to approve and sanction, and presupposes knowledge or at least some alerting circumstantial information of the unauthorized act. MacLeod v Ajax Distributing Co. 22 NJ Super 121, 91 A2d 635, 34 ALR2d 504. To ratify is to give validity to the act of another, and implies that the person or body ratifying has at the time power to do the act ratified. A county board could not ratify a subscription without a vote of the county because they could not make a subscription in the first instance without such an authorization. Norton v Shelby County, 118 US 425, 452, 30 L Ed 178, 189, 6 S Ct 1121. Ratification of an unauthorized act is equivalent to an original grant of authority. Rogers v Beiderwell, 175 Kan 223, 262 P2d 814, 45 ALR2d 578.
Ballentine's law dictionary. Anderson, W.S.. 1998.