Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

AGENT

52

AGAINST

AGAINST THE PEACE. A technical phrase used in alleging a breach of the peace. See CONTBA PAOEM. AGAINST THE WILL. Technical words which must be used in framing an in dictment for robbery from the person. 1 Chit. Crim. Law, 244. AGALMA. An impression or image of anything on a seal. Cowell. AGARD. L. Fr, An award. NvJ, fait agard; no award made. AGARDER. L. Fr. To award, adjudge, or determine; to sentence, or condemn. AGE. Signifies those periods in the lives of persons of both sexes which enable them to do certain acts which, before they had ar rived at those periods, they were prohibited from doing. The length of time during which a person has lived or a thing has existed. In the old books, "age" is commonly used to signify "full age;" that is, the age of twenty-one years. Litt. § 259. AGE, Awe, Aive. L. Fr. Water. Kel ham. AGE PRAYER. A suggestion of non age, made by an infant party to a real ac tion, with a prayer that the proceedings may be deferred until his full age. It is now abolished. St. 11 Geo. IV.; 1 Wm. IV. c. 37, § 10; 1 Iil. Eeg. 54; 3 Bl. Comm. 300. AGENCY. The contract of agency may be denned to be a contract by which one of the contracting parties confides the manage ment of some affair, to be transacted on his account, to the other party, who undertakes to do the business and render an account of it. 1 Liverm. Prin. & Ag. 2. A contract by which one person, with greater or less discretionary power, under takes to represent another in certain business relations. Whart. Ag. 1. A relation between two or more persons, by which one party, usually called the agent or attorney, is authorized to do certain acts for, or in relation to the rights or property of the other, who is denominated the principal, constituent, or employer. Bouvier, quoting Prof. Joel Parker, MS. Lect. 1851. AGENCY, DEED OF. A revocable and voluntary trust for payment of debts. Whar ton. AGENFRIDA. Sax. The true master or owner of a thing. Spelman.

AGENHINA. In Saxon law. A guest at an inn, who, having stayed there for three nights, was then accounted one of the family. Cowell. AGENS. Lat. An agent, a conductor, or manager of affairs. Distinguished from factor, a workman. A plaintiff. Fleta, lib. 4, c. 15, § 8. AGENT. One who undertakes to trans act some business, or to manage some affair, for another, by the authority and on account of the latter, and to render an account of it. 1 Liverm. Prm. & Ag. 67; 2 Bouv. Inst. 3. An agent is one who represents another called the "principal," in dealings with third persons. Such representation is called agen cy. Civil Code Dak. § 1337. The terms "agent" and "attorney" are oft en used synonymously. Thus, a letter o power of attorney is constantly spoken of a the formal instrument by which an agency is created. Paley, Ag. (Dunl. Ed.) 1, n. Classification. Agents are either general or special. A general agent is one employed in his capacity as a professional man or master of an art or trade, or one to whom the principal confides his whole business or all transactions or functions of a designated class. A special agent is one employed to con duct a particular transaction or authorized to perform a specified act. Agents employed for the sale of goods or merchandise are called "mercantile agents," and are of two principal classes,—brokers and factors, (g. p.;) a factor is sometimes called a "commission agent," or "commission merchant." Buss. Merc. Ag. 1. Synonyms. The term "agent" is to be distinguished from its synonyms "servant," "representative," and "trustee." A serv ant acts in behalf of his master and under the latter's direction and authority, but is re garded as a mere instrument, and not as the substitute oi proxy of the master. A repre sentative (such as an executor or an assignee in bankruptcy) owes his power and authority to the law, which puts him in the place of the person repiesented, although the |latter may have designated or chosen the representative. A trustee acts in the interest and fonthe bene fit of one person, but by an authority derived from another person. In international law. A diplomatic agent is a person employed by a sovereign to manage his private affairs, or those of his subjects in his name, at the court of a foreign government. Wolff, Inst. Nat. § 1237.

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