The plaintiff brought an action to recover payment for work performed under an informal oral contract.
The court permitted amendments to the pleadings to correct the plaintiff’s capacity and to add a corporate defendant allegedly involved in the contract.
The defendant asserted he acted solely as an agent for the corporation, but the court held that a party claiming to have acted as an agent bears the onus of proving the other party knew of that capacity.
Finding the evidence evenly balanced on that issue, the court concluded the defendant failed to discharge the onus.
Judgment was awarded against the individual defendant for $50,000, with the claim against the corporate defendant dismissed without costs.
