Postal Telegraph 8212 Cable Co v. Warren 8212 Godwin Lumber Co

• Citation: 40 S.Ct. 69,251 U.S. 27,64 L.Ed. 118
• Decision Date: 08 December 1919
• Docket Number: No. 91,91
• Parties: POSTAL TELEGRAPH—CABLE CO. v. WARREN—GODWIN LUMBER CO
• Court: United States Supreme Court

251 U.S. 27

40 S.Ct. 69

64 L.Ed. 118

POSTAL TELEGRAPH—CABLE CO.

v WARREN—GODWIN LUMBER CO.

No. 91.

Argued and Submitted Nov. 17, 1919.

Decided Dec. 8, 1919.

Messrs. Ellis B. Cooper and J. N. Flowers, both of Jackson, Miss., for petitioner.

Mr. Wm. D. Anderson, of Tupelo, Miss., for respondent.

Mr. Chief Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.

In Primrose v. Western Union Telegraph Company, 154 U. S. 1, 14 Sup. Ct. 1098, 38 L. Ed. 883, the court passed upon the validity of a contract made by a telegraph company with the sender of a message by which, in case the message was missent, the liability of the company was limited to a refunding of the price paid for sending it, unless, as a means of guarding against mistake, the repeating of the message from the office to which it was directed to the office of origin was secured by the payment of an additional sum. It was held that such a contract was not one exempting the company from liability for its negligence, but was merely a reasonable condition appropriately adjusting the charge for the service rendered to the duty and responsibility exacted for its performance. Such a contract was therefore decided to be valid and the right to recover for error in transmitting a message which was sent subject to it was accordingly limited.

In Western Union Telegraph Company v. Showers, 112 Miss. 411, 73 South. 276, the Supreme Court of that state was called upon to consider the validity of a contract by a telegraph company limiting its responsibility for missending an unrepeated message essentially like the contract which was considered and upheld in the Primrose Case. The court decided that as the Act of Congress of June 18, 1910, c. 309, 36 Stat. 539, 545, had operated to exert the power of Congress over telegraph companies as to their interstate business and contracts, Congress had taken possession of the field and thus excluded state legislation and hence such a contract was valid and enforcible in accordance with the rule laid down in the Primrose Case. In holding this, however, the court pointed out that but for the act of Congress a different rule would apply, as under the state law such a contract was invalid because it was a stipulation by a carrier limiting its liability for its negligence.

In Dickerson v. Western Union Telegraph Company, 114 Miss. 115, 74 South. 779, the validity of a like contract by a telegraph company for the sending of an unrepeated message once again arose for consideration. In passing upon it the court declared that the ruling previously made in the Showers Case, as to the operation of the act of Congress of 1910, was erroneous. Coming therefore anew to reconsider that subject, it was held that the act of Congress of 1910 had not extended the power of Congress over the rates of telegraph companies for interstate business and the contracts made by them as to such subject, and hence the Showers Case, in so far as it held to the contrary, was overruled. Thus removing the contract from the operation of the national law and bringing it under the state law, the court held that the contract was void and not susceptible of being enforced because it was a mere contract exempting the telegraph company from the consequences of its negligence.

The case before us involving the extent of the liability of the Telegraph Company for an unrepeated interstate message governed by a contract like those considered in the previous cases, was decided by a state circuit court after the decision in the Showers Case and before the overruling of that case by the Dickerson Case. Presumably therefore the court, because of the Showers decision upheld the validity of the contract and accordingly limited the recovery. The appeal which took the case to the court below, however, was there heard after the decision in the Dickerson Case. In view of that situation the court below in disposing of the case expressly declared that the only issue which was open was the correctness of the ruling in the Dickerson Case, limiting the operation and effect of the act of Congress of June 18, 1910. Disposing of that issue, the ruling in the Dickerson Case was reiterated and the contract, although it concerned the transmission of an interstate message, was declared not affected by the act of Congress and to be solely controlled by the state law and to be therefore void. That subject, presents then, the only federal question, and indeed the only question in the case.

For the sake of brevity, we do not stop to review the cases which perturbed the mind of the court below in the Dickerson Case as to the correctness of its ruling in the Showers Case (Pennsylvania R. R. Co. v. Hughes, 191 U. S. 477, 24 Sup. Ct. 132, 48 L. Ed. 268; Western Union Telegraph Company v. Crovo, 220 U. S. 346, 31 Sup. Ct. 399, 55 L. Ed. 498; Adams Express Company v. Croninger, 226 U. S. 491, 33 Sup. Ct. 148, 57 L. Ed. 314, 44 L. R. A. (N. S.) 257; Western Union Telegraph Company v. Brown, 234 U. S. 542, 34 Sup. Ct. 955, 58 L. Ed. 1457), but content ourselves with saying that we are of opinion that the effect which was given to them was a mistaken one. We come at once...