Also known as: managing agent · general agent
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An agent authorized to conduct a series of transactions involving a continuity of service.
The Garza family hired Lina as farm manager to handle all buying and selling. Over several years Lina signed repeated contracts for seed, fertilizer, equipment leases, and crop sales. When Lina later executed a multi-season forward grain contract with Prairie Grain Distributors, the Garzas were bound because Lina's ongoing role met the standard for a general agent.
A shareholder sued Benguet Consolidated Mining Co. in Ohio after the company president conducted continuous business activities there during the Korean War. Service on the president as managing agent allowed the Ohio court to exercise jurisdiction over the Philippine corporation.
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QVC noticed the deposition of Paramount's chief executive officer in a merger dispute. Because the officer qualified as a managing agent with ongoing authority over the transaction, QVC could use the deposition transcript for any purpose at trial.
Adickes sued S.H. Kress & Co. for civil rights violations after being refused service at a lunch counter. Delivery of process to the store manager, who exercised day-to-day control over operations, satisfied the requirement for service on a managing or general agent.
A general agent is authorized to conduct a series of transactions involving continuity of service. A special agent is limited to a single transaction or a series lacking that continuity. Courts examine the number of transactions, their duration, and whether the role involves ongoing responsibility in a defined area of the principal's business.
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An initial writing that restricts the agent to a single task supports special-agent classification. Later conduct showing repeated transactions over years can override that limit if the principal's own statements and the agent's ongoing performance establish continuity of service.
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Service is effective when delivered to an officer, managing or general agent, or other agent authorized by appointment or law to receive process. The agent's ongoing managerial responsibilities over the entity's affairs satisfy the rule even if the agent lacks authority to bind the entity in every matter.
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Yes. When a managing general agent is authorized to hire others and remains primarily responsible to the principal for their conduct, the subagent's authorized acts bind the principal. The managing general agent's retention of responsibility preserves the chain of authority.
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…Under Ch. Ct. R. 32(a)(2), a deposition is admissible against a party if the deposition is of an officer, director, or managing agent. From the docket entries, it appears that depositions of third party witnesses (persons who were not directors or officers) were taken pursuant to the issuance of commissions. [^maj-26]:…