"Mattie
J. Glenn, hereinafter designated as 'plaintiff,'
against the Western Union Telegraph Company, hereinafter
designated as 'defendant,' brings this complaint
and to this honorable court respectfully showeth as
follows, to wit:
"(1)
Defendant is a corporation engaged in the operation of a
system of telegraph lines through various sections of this
country, embracing, among other fields covered, the
territory in, through, and from the cities of Macon, state
of Georgia, to Memphis, state
of Tennessee, and was such corporation and so engaged on
the occasion and dates hereinafter named.
"(2)
The business of defendant as it so was on the dates
hereinafter specified is the immediate transmission and
delivery of intelligence from point to point on its various
lines by electricity; said defendant holding itself out to
the public as undertaking, for hire at such rates and charges
as it fixed, to promptly transmit and deliver such messages
as may be delivered to it.
"(3)
Defendant is and was, on dates and occasions hereinafter
named, conducting its said business in said county of Bibb,
state of Georgia, aforesaid, and has, and on said dates and
occasions had, in said state and county an agent, an agency,
and a place of business.
"(4)
Defendant has injured and damaged plaintiff in the full sum
and amount of $3,000, in manner and form and by reason of
facts hereinafter set forth, for that:
"(5)
For many years prior to the 18th day of July, in the year
1903, plaintiff, together with her husband, R. E. Glenn,
her children, and her mother, was a resident citizen of the
city of Macon aforesaid, where her said family lived
happily, being lovingly provided for by her said husband,
his only source of revenue being his position as a member
of the police force of said city, at a monthly salary of
$70; said income being the only means of living possessed
by said family.
"(6)
On said last-named date her said husband, in a remarkable
and unusual spirit of anger, left his home and family; and
for a period of about nine months remained so absented.
"(7)
Two days after her said husband's departure, plaintiff
received through defendant, by its messenger boy, a
telegram from her husband, of which the following is a
copy: 'Memphis, Tenn., July 20, 1903. Mrs. R. E. Glenn,
202 Cole St., Macon, Ga. Have just gotten right see mayor
about job, answer at my expense care Western Union
Telegraph Co. R. E. Glenn. 2:40 p.m.'
"(8)
On the envelope inclosing said message was written by
defendant's agent in said Macon, Ga., these words:
'Please send reply by bearer.'
"(9)
Plaintiff then and there immediately penned the following
reply to her husband's said telegram: 'Macon, Ga.
July 20, 1903. R. E. Glenn, care Western Union Telegraph
Co., Memphis, Tenn. Job all right. Moseley just left and
told me so. Been in bed two days. Thank God you are coming.
Hun.'
"(10)
Plaintiff, having ascertained that her said husband's
said position on the police force was still open for him,
wrote the above message, as a reply to said message
received from him, gave it to the bearing messenger boy, as
instructed, to be delivered to the office and agent of
defendant in said city of Macon, for transmission to her
said husband.
"(11)
Plaintiff confidently expected her said husband to
immediately return home upon receipt of her said message
answering his; but as the days wore on, and after her
husband, as she has since learned, had left Memphis in
despair of any reconciliation with her, and hopeless of
recovering his said position on the police force, to her
consternation and horror she discovered that defendant had
negligently failed to transmit her said message within a
reasonable time, and in time to reach her said husband
while he was yet in the city of Memphis, and in fact had
utterly failed to transmit, or even start, said message
from said Macon office.
"(12)
Long thereafter, some nine months, plaintiff, after having
vainly inquired by letters, telegrams, and otherwise, for
the whereabouts of her said husband, found that he was in
Ft. Worth, Tex., where, in the month of March, 1904, she
was enabled to reach him with a letter.
"(13)
As soon as her said husband received her letter, and as
soon as he could recover from an illness that was then upon
him, he promptly returned to his home and family in the
said of Macon, and in a few months thereafter resumed his
position on the police force, as aforesaid.
"(14)
Had defendant received her said message he would have
promptly returned to his home, family, and position.
"(15)
After her husband's final return, plaintiff learned for
the first time the exact condition of affairs which had for
so long cruelly separated her husband from his home and
family; learned, and here charges, that for several days
after sending his said message to her, to wit, from Monday,
July 20, 1903, to the Thursday following, her said husband
had literally haunted the office and agency of defendant in
the said city of Memphis, visiting same several times day
and night, vainly inquiring for an answer to his said
message, for which he had prepaid the charges, and finally,
in despair of both reconciliation with her and recovering
his position in said city of Macon, had gone to other parts
of the country in search of work.
"(16)
Plaintiff here charges defendant with negligence in failing
to transmit her said message to her husband, and charges
that said negligence was the proximate cause of depriving
her of the companionship, protection, and support which her
said husband afforded her and her family when with them.
"(17)
Plaintiff charges that the negligence of defendant
aforesaid was the direct and proximate cause of her
husband's failing to return to his home and family, and
his failing to have and hold his said position on the
police force of Macon, from the said 20th day of July,
1903, to about the first part of August, 1904, when he was
restored to his said position.
"(18)
Plaintiff shows that the conduct of defendant, in failing
to transmit her said message, which was delivered to
defendant about 3 p. m. on the said 20th day of July,
1903, was attended with aggravating circumstances, for
which she asks exemplary damages, in addition to the
general and special damages she is entitled to recover,
under the law and facts.
"(19)
Plaintiff shows that the circumstances show that defendant
was abundantly put upon notice of the purpose and importance
of her message, both to her husband and herself, and submits,
as part of the facts bringing home said notice to defendant,
the prepayment by her husband of the charge of transmitting
her said answer, his information to defendant's agent at
Memphis at the time of its importance, the message to her on
envelope as aforesaid, and the very wording of her message,
as well as the wording of both her husband's and her
message.
"(20)
Plaintiff shows that because of the negligent conduct of
defendant she was forced to endure all the pain and
humiliation of an enforced separation from her husband for
the long period of time aforesaid, was forced to endure the
hardships incident to the withdrawal of his support and his
protection of his family, and to endure many other painful
things necessarily incident to such a condition of affairs.
"(21)
By reason of this absence of her husband, brought about by
defendant's negligence as aforesaid, plaintiff was forced
to work and struggle to furnish to herself and family that
provision and maintenance always theretofore afforded by her
husband. Plaintiff, being unused to work of the character she
was forced to resort to, in her distressing condition
necessarily suffered great humiliation from the bare fact of
the necessity.
"(22)
In the effort to properly provide for her children during
said absence of their father, she was forced to live for a
time separate and apart from...
