Ratification

Ratification means confirmation, authorizing subsequently what has been already done previously without authority, in contract law it is equivalent to a prior request to make the contract; and in the law of torts, it renders the principal liable, unless it should have the effect of purging the tort. To any ratification it is necessary that the act when originally done should for the person who subsequently ratifies it; and usually such ratification must be given at a time when the principal himself might have done the act and not afterwards.

Where acts are done by one person on behalf of another, but without his knowledge or authority one may elect to ratify or to disown acts.  If he ratifies them, the same effect will follow as if they had been performed by his authority.  Ratification may be express or may be implied in the conduct of the person on whose behalf the acts are done.  No valid ratification can be made by a person whose knowledge of the facts of the case is materially defective. A person ratifying any unauthorized act on his behalf ratifies the whole of the transaction of which such act formed a part.  An act done by one person on behalf of another without such other person's authority, which, if done with authority, would have the effect of subjecting a third person to damages, or a determining any right or interest of third person, cannot by ratification, be made to have such effect.