Scissorhands is the sole proprietor of a landscaping business and has set up an account with a nursery to buy plants on credit. Scissorhands has a number of landscaping crews, so it wouldn't be practical for him to handle all the purchases of plants. Hence, Scissorhands typically delegates to each crew chief the task of buying plants at the nursery and charging them to Scissorhands' account. Scissorhands has recently hired Ryder as an additional crew chief but told her she is not authorized to charge items to his nursery account.

For each of the transactions described in hypos 1-4 below, consider what arguments you could make on behalf of the nursery for why Scissorhands is obligated to pay the charges made by Ryder on Scissorhands' account. Assume that each hypo is independent of the other items. In other words, make arguments based on the above facts and those in the specific hypo but not facts in any of the other hypos.

1. Ryder goes to the nursery the morning of her first day on the job in a truck with Scissorhands Landscaping painted prominently on it that Scissorhands gave her to use. Ryder picks out some plants for a Scissorhands job and charges them to Scissorhands' account. Her Scissorhands' landscaping garb has not come in, so she is wearing an "I like dirt" shirt.
2. Ryder goes to the nursery the morning of her first day on the job in her own truck. Ryder picks out some plants for a Scissorhands job and tells the nursery to charge them to Scissorhands' account. Not recognizing Ryder, the nursery refuses to do so and thus Ryder charges the plants on her credit card. Later that day, the nursery calls Scissorhands to inquire about Ryder's authority, gets Scissorhands' voicemail, and leaves him a message asking if Ryder is authorized to charge on his account. Scissorhands promptly listens to the message but never calls the nursery back, so the next day the nursery lets Ryder charge some plants on Scissorhands' account 
3. Even though Ryder knows she is not authorized, she nonetheless charges some plants and other items to Scissorhands' account, telling the nursery that Scissorhands has authorized her to do so. The nursery believes her, so lets her do it.
4. Ryder charged plants at the nursery to Scissorhands' account in September even though she was not authorized by Scissorhands to do so. Scissorhands nonetheless paid the bill without objection, knowing that the charges were incurred by Ryder. This month (October), Ryder once again charges plants to Scissorhands' account even though she is not authorized to do so, but this time Scissorhands tells the nursery he is not paying because Ryder was not authorized.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Hypo 1 Ostensible authority The nursery could argue that Ryder had ostensible authority to charge items to Scissorhands account Ostensible authority a... View the full answer