Critical Thinking Exercise 13-1 - Law Firm 2

CSX is in the business of selling out-of-service railcars and parts. Albert Arillotta is a "partner" at Interstate Demolition and Environmental Corp. (IDEC), which shares offices with Recovery Express, a separate company. Arillotta sent an email, using therecoverexpress.com(Links to an external site.)

domain name, offering to buy, on behalf of IDEC and Recovery Express, rail cars for scrap. An agreement was reached, CSX delivered the rail cars, but was never paid. CSX sued IDEC and Recovery Express, claiming that Arillotta was, in particular, Recovery Express'sagent. Although Recovery Express had allowed Arillotta to share office space, telephones, and the email domain, it countered that Arillotta was not its agent and never had any authority to purchase any rail cars on its behalf.

1. Does the use of therecoveryexpress.com(Links to an external site.) email domain, by itself, confer apparent authority on Arillotta?
2. Does CSX have any responsibility to verify Arillotta's authority before it transacts business with him?
3. Assuming you've been granted an email address with yourinstitution's.edudomain, does that confer apparent authority on you?