Q.
What is the effect(s) of ratification?
A.
An effective ratification places all the parties in a position similar to that which they would have occupied at the material time if the agent had had actual authority to perform the acts ratified. This is expressed by the maxim omnis ratihabitio retrotrahitur et mandato priori aequiparatur.
Where a contract is ratified, the agent is relieved from personal liability to his principal for acting in excess of his authority, and may recover his commission and expenses. The principal must perform the contract made by the agent in its entirety; and the agent is relieved from personal liability to the other contracting party for breach of warranty of authority, the only remedy of that party being against the principal, unless the agent so contracted as to make himself additionally liable.
Where the act ratified is tortious, the agent remains liable for the tort, but the principal will also become liable, unless the act is only wrongful because of lack of authority, in which case it will be justified by the ratification. It is no justification for the commission of a tortious act that the wrongdoer is acting under another's authority, unless that other can justify the alleged wrong.
Ratification by a principal of one act done by an agent in excess of his authority does not extend the agent's authority so as to authorise him to do similar acts in future.