5 CAPACITY AND AUTHORITY LET US IMAGINE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN NEGOTIATI...
Let us imagine that you have been negotiating with representatives of a party
to a project for the design and construction of a chemical plant in the Gulf;
you are the French design-build contractor, and the other party is a Korean
joint-venture owner. You and the owner ’ s representatives have recorded in
detail the terms of the intended contract between you in a formal document.
After much discussion, the details of every aspect of your agreement have
been reduced to writing, and everything appears ready now for the signing, or
‘execution’, of the contract. The other side ’ s senior representative and you then
both duly sign the contract in each other ’ s presence.
Now you think that you have a binding contract. However, you might not
have a binding contract if the person who signed the contract for the other
party was not authorised to do so.
One very important, but sometimes overlooked, feature of contracts in
general concerns the authority of the person signing or executing the contract
on behalf of the named party. Does that person truly have power or authority
to bind the named party by signing the contract, apparently on its behalf?
This question arises most commonly in connection with companies or
corporations rather than with individual people. Most legal systems contain
rules for the formation, constitution and regulation of companies or corpora-
tions; they are treated as legal persons, just like real people, having legal rights
and obligations themselves and being able in particular to enter into con-
tracts in their own names. So ‘A Ltd.’, or ‘A Corporation’, or ‘A Incorporated’
might be names of a distinct legal person, the company or corporation
named.
Construction projects of any size will almost invariably involve contracts
between companies rather than real people. But because companies are only
abstract legal persons, they cannot act except by real people with authority, or
power, to act for them; these authorised people are the agents of the company.
So in dealings with third parties, including entering into contracts with them,
companies will act by or through their agents.
A company ’ s agents will include a whole range of people, with different
levels of authority. Some people may have authority, given by the company, to
enter into contracts on the company ’ s behalf but only up to a certain financial
limit; others may be able to enter into contracts of any size, but only in certain
geographical areas, or where the contract concerns a particular subject matter.
Whether, and if so what, contracts a person is authorised to enter into on
behalf of a company will depend on the constitution and internal organisation
of the company and, more generally, upon the system of law that applies to
that company.
If a person is authorised to enter into contracts of a certain size or type, then
he may be said to have actual authority to bind the company by executing
contracts of that size or type. However, many legal systems also have a concept
of
apparent or
ostensible authority, whereby a company could still be bound by
the acts of a person who does not have actual authority. If a company, by its
words or conduct, represents or holds out to the other party that a particular
individual has authority to contract with it then it may be open to the other
party to argue that the company is bound by the individual who signs the
contract, even if that individual lacked actual authority to do so.
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This concept of ostensible authority is very important because it is often not
possible to tell, without making detailed inquiries of a kind which are not
always made, whether the particular person signing the contract is actually
authorised to do so. If he has apparent or ostensible authority then, as
described above, the company could still be bound.
We have highlighted the distinction between these two kinds of authority
because it is surprisingly common in international projects for questions of
authority to arise if there is later a dispute. One party might argue that the
contract was not validly concluded because the person signing it did not have
authority or power to do so on the company ’ s behalf, and in this way seek to
avoid a payment or liability. In order to protect yourself from such an argu-
ment it is very important to obtain legal advice. Your legal adviser should
satisfy himself that the person purporting to execute a contract on behalf of
the named party has authority to do so.
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Another, related matter of great practical importance is the
capacity of the
company named as the other party to the contract. In some legal systems there
is a doctrine or rule to the effect that a contract entered into with a company
which, by virtue of its constitution, is unable or lacks the capacity to enter into
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Many (although not all) legal systems have a concept of apparent or ostensible authority.
The details of this doctrine will vary from system to system.
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This could involve examining whether the relevant person has actual authority according
to the laws of the country of incorporation of the named party to the contract.
contracts of that kind is null and void and cannot be enforced.
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Your legal
adviser should take steps to ensure that no problems of capacity arise should
the project later encounter difficulties.
We shall be looking shortly at BOT or concession-type projects, in which
there is a contract or contracts between a government or government agency
and another party or parties. In any contract with such a body it is essential to
ensure that it has the legal capacity to enter into the contract; special rules
could apply to such bodies that do not apply to private entities. In addition, it
is important to ensure that the individual or individuals signing on behalf of
the official body have authority to do so.
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