Watteau v Fenwick / Agency

I'm looking at the case of Watteau v Fenwick, and I can't seem to find an answer to my question so far. In order for the Watteau v Fenwick to be applied two conditions must be met:

1. The buyer does not know that the seller is an agent
2. The seller does an act which he has no actual authority to do, but does an act which an agent in his position would usually have the authority to do.

I totally understand this, however, what would happen if the second criteria was not met. For example, if the seller does an act which he has no actual authority to do, but he also did an act which an agent in his position would NOT usually have the authority to do. Say for example a company only bought and sold certified fair trade coffee, and the agent went ahead and bought a coffee that had not been recognised as fair trade, because it was at a good price.

Even though an agent in his position would normally have bought coffee as a product, he would never had bought that particular coffee as it was against the companies policy.

To me this seems to satisfy Watteau v Fenwick in respect that an agent would normally have bought coffee, but then when the question raised asks whether the agent would have bought that coffee in particular, the answer would be no, and thus the Watteau v Fenwick criteria has not been met.

I've read a few journals on the criticisms for and against the WvF decision but I can't seem to find a direct answer to this question?

Thanks

Reply 1

jacketpotato

I think you are looking at your example from a subjective standpoint, but "An agent in his position would usually have the authority to do" looks like an objective test to me. I assume that there would be no authority, unless it was extremely well known that the company in question only purchased fair trade coffee - but if it was a well known company, it would be obvious that the seller was an agent so the first limb of the test would not have been met.

p.s. Watteau v Fenwick is not good law. Do take it with a pinch of salt, and think about alternative ways in which the result may be explained and thereby reconciled with the rest of Agency law.