Evans v. W. Union Tel. Co.

• Decision Date: 15 May 1897
• Citation: 102 Iowa 219,71 N.W. 219
• Parties: EVANS ET AL. v. WESTERN UNION TEL. CO.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

102 Iowa 219

71 N.W. 219

EVANS ET AL.

v.WESTERN UNION TEL. CO.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 15, 1897.

Appeal from district court, Taylor county; W. H. Tedford, Judge.

J. A. Evans and Carr McCloud compose the firm of Evans & McCloud, and were engaged in the business of buying, selling, and shipping horses at Bedford, Iowa. In December, 1893, McCloud, while passing through Little Rock, Ark., to Magnolia, of that state, with a car load of horses, entered into an oral agreement with one Thaltheimer to deliver him another car load as good or better as that he then had on Thursday following, at a certain price per horse. The firm had nearly another car load at Bedford, and, before McCloud left, had an understanding that Evans should ship these, with a certain pacer, to San Antonio, Tex., on Monday following unless he heard from McCloud. The latter handed the defendant's agent at Magnolia, Ark., the following telegram, on Saturday, with the required fee for its transmission: “December 16th, 1893. To J. A. Evans, Bedford, Iowa: Ship horses Monday. Bill by way of Little Rock. Keep out Jim Cloud. C. S. McCloud.” The message was never sent, and the horses were shipped to San Antonio. This action is brought to recover damages occasioned by failure to transmit the message. Trial to jury; verdict and judgment for plaintiffs, and defendant appeals. Reversed.Smith McPherson and Sullivan & Sullivan, for appellant.

J. B. Dunn and Flick & Johnston, for appellees.

LADD, J.

The defendant should be compelled to make good any damages sustained by the breach of the contract to deliver the message which were contemplated or might reasonably have entered into the contemplation of the parties at the time it was received with the fee for its transmission. Special circumstances, unless made known, cannot affect the measure of damages; but, when made known at the time the contract is entered into, the damages will be such as naturally result from its breach under such circumstances. 1 Sedg. Dam. 122; 3 Suth. Dam. § 961. The fact that plaintiffs had arranged to ship the car load of horses from Bedford, Iowa, to San Antonio, Tex., in event Evans did not hear from McCloud by the Monday following, was not communicated to the company or its agent, and it could not be expected to have had that in contemplation in receiving it. San Antonio, as a horse market, does not control the prices at Bedford; and the defendant could no more have anticipated a shipment of the horses there than to any other distant place, in event of failure to deliver the message. The damages occasioned thereby are not such as would ordinarily follow from such a failure. Only those which flow directly and naturally from the breach of the contract can be allowed. The district court received evidence of the shipment to San Antonio, the freight and expense connected therewith, and the price there received for the horses. No evidence was introduced tending to show the market value at Bedford or in Little Rock. This instruction on the measure of damages was given: “If you find for the plaintiffs, you will first allow them the difference in price for which said horses were contracted, if they were, and the price actually obtained after their reasonable diligence to obtain a sale for the horses. In addition to this, p...