Jones v. Roach

• Decision Date: 21 December 1899
• Parties: JONES et al. v. ROACH.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

54 S.W. 240

JONES et al. v. ROACH.

Supreme Court of Texas.

December 21, 1899.

Error from court of civil appeals of Second supreme judicial district.

Action by John D. Roach against Morgan Jones, receiver, and another. From a judgment of the appellate court (51 S. W. 549) affirming a judgment for plaintiff, defendants bring error. Affirmed.

Stanley, Spoonts & Thompson, for plaintiffs in error. Browning & Madden, for defendant in error.

BROWN, J.

This suit was instituted by John D. Roach against Morgan Jones, then the receiver of the Ft. Worth & Denver City Railway Company, to recover $5,000 damages for mental suffering and $100 expenses incurred on account of the failure of the receiver to transmit and deliver a telegraph message sent by the plaintiff from Amarillo, Tex., to S. E. Jones, at Jacksonville, Tex. S. E. Jones had telegraphed on the 14th of February, 1896, to John D. Roach, at Amarillo, that Roach's wife was dead. Mrs. Roach was the sister of S. E. Jones, and was at the house of the latter, in Jacksonville, when she died. To this telegram Roach replied on the 15th of February as follows: "We will be there on the first train,"—signed, "John D. Roach," and addressed to S. E. Jones, Jacksonville, Tex. This message was delivered to the operator at Amarillo of the telegraph line which was under the control of Morgan Jones, as receiver, on the 15th day of February, 1896, at 11:10 a. m. It was not sent from Amarillo until 8:55 p. m. of that day, and was delivered at Jacksonville to Jones at 10 a. m. February 16th. Mrs. Roach was buried about 4 o'clock on the 15th, and Roach arrived at Jacksonville at 7:40 a. m. February 17, 1896. Plaintiff alleged that the defendant had notice of the purposes he had in sending the message, and, if it had been delivered in a reasonable time, the burial would have been postponed to await his arrival. It is unnecessary to make a more extensive statement of the facts. Judgment was rendered for the plaintiff in the court below, and affirmed by the court of civil appeals. This writ of error was granted upon the assignment that there was no evidence to support the finding of the jury upon the issue that the funeral of Mrs. Roach would have been postponed if the telegram had been delivered in a reasonable time. Morgan Jones, the receiver, was discharged, turning the property back to the railway company without sale, and it was made party defendant.

Under the rule laid down by this court in Joske v. Irvine, 91 Tex....