Rights and Duties of Agents and Distributions of International Business

Rights of Agents.

(I) Right of Retainer: Agent has right to deduct the amount which is due to him by principal, from amount payable to principal.

(II) Right of stoppage in transit: In case where agent is personally liable, he has right to stop the goods in transit. The good may be moving towards customer or principal.

(III) Right to claim Remuneration: As per the terms of agency contract, agent has rights to claim remuneration.

(IV) Right of Indemnity: Principle of indemnity gets operated between principal and agent where principal is implied indemnifier and agent is implied indemnity holder. So agent can make principal answerable for all types of sufferings.

(V) Right of lien: Agent can exercise right of lien but contract act has not specified whether it is general lien or particular lien. Therefore the nature of agent’s lien depends upon mutual understanding.

Duties of Agents

(I) Agent should follow the instructions given by the principal.

(II) If agent comes across any complicated situation, he has to communicate that situation to principal and his advice is to be obtained.

(III) Agent should behave in his capacity as agent, he should not run the transaction in his own name.

(IV) Agent should not make secret profits by utilizing reputation of the principal.

(V) Agent should safe guard property of principal particularly upon happening of events like death of principal, insolvency of principal, etc.

(VI) Agent should maintain proper accounting records to enrol the transactions run by him. Agent has to remit amounts to principal properly.

(VII) Agent has to remit amounts to principal properly.

(VIII) Agent should not carry on delegation.

Liabilities of Agents.

Actually agents binds over principal to his activities but there are some situations where agent comes across personal liability. Those situations are as follows;

(I) Terms of contract of agency may create personal liability to agent.

(II) The tradition which is in operation in that particular type of business. May also create personal liability to agent.

(III) If agent does not behave in his capacity as agent and thus runs the transaction in his own way, personal liability arises.

(IV) When agent acts for foreign principal, agent is personally liable.

(V) Pretending agent is personally liable.

(VI) When agent acts for principal who has not come into existence, agent is personally liable.

(VIII) In case where principal cannot be sued, Customer sues agent and thus agent is personally liable.

(VIII) When agency is coupled with interest then also agent is personally liable.