Agency

REG agency MCQs hand you a fact pattern and ask who is liable on the contract and who can recover. The hinge is almost always the type of authority: actual (express or implied), apparent (the principal’s conduct, not the agent’s words, leads the third party to reasonably believe authority exists), or ratification (the principal later adopts an unauthorized act, relating back to when the agent acted, and must take the whole deal). The other “tell” is whether the principal is disclosed, partially disclosed, or undisclosed (the Restatement Third now says “unidentified,” but review banks keep “partially disclosed”): with the latter two, the agent is personally liable and the third party may elect to hold either.

The classic trap is reading apparent authority off what the agent said—but only the principal’s manifestations create it, so a secret limitation the third party never knew still binds the principal. Don’t confuse agency with contracts: agency decides whose contract it is; offer/acceptance/consideration decide whether a contract exists. Memory hook: apparent = appears to the third party; ratify the whole, not the part.