Mood v. Western Union Tel. Co

• Citation: 40 S.C. 524,19 S.E. 67
• Parties: MOOD v. WESTERN UNION TEL. CO.
• Decision Date: 07 March 1894
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of South Carolina

19 S.E. 67

40 S.C. 524

MOOD

v.WESTERN UNION TEL. CO.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

March 7, 1894.

Failure to Deliver Telegram—Special Damages—Pleading.

Damages caused by neglect to deliver a telegram, resulting in plaintiff's loss of a fee, are remote and special, and, unless specially alleged in the complaint, cannot be recovered.

Appeal from common pleas circuit court of Sumter county; J. H. Hudson, Judge.

Action by J. A. Mood against the Western Union Telegraph Company. There was Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed.

The following is the complaint: "The plaintiff, complaining of the defendant, alleges: (1) For a first cause of action: That the defendant is a corporation doing business in this state, and having offices for the transaction of business at Remini, in the county of Sumter, and in the city of Sumter, in said county, and the said defendant is engaged in the business of transmitting and delivering, for hire, telegraphic messages between points upon its line, and the plaintiff is a physician and surgeon having his office in the city of Sumter aforesaid. (2) That on the 28th day of November, 1891, one A. N. Webb delivered to the agent of the defendant at Remini aforesaid, for transmission on the wires of the defendant, and there to be delivered to the plaintiff, a telegraphic message requiring the plaintiff to come to Remini aforesaid to attend professionally three persons who had been seriously wounded, and who were in immediate need of the plaintiff's services as such physician and surgeon; and that said A. N. Webb then and there duly prepaid the toll or charge for the said message to the agent of the defendant at Remini aforesaid, who undertook and agreed with the plaintiff thereupon, for and in behalf of the defendant, in consideration thereof, forthwith to transmit the said message to Sumter aforesaid, and there deliver the same to the plaintiff. (3) That the defendant wholly failed and neglected to perform the said contract so agreed to be performed on its part as aforesaid, so that the said message was wholly lost to the plaintiff, and was never received by him, to his damage one hundred dollars. (4) For second cause of action: That the defendant is a corporation doing business in this state, and having offices for the transaction of business at Remini, in the county of Sumter, and in the city of Sumter, in the said county, and having telegraph wires and poles running between Remini and Sumter aforesaid; and the said defendant is engaged in the business of transmitting and delivering for hire, telegraphic messages between points upon its Line; and the plaintiff is a physician and surgeon having his office and place of business in tile city of Sumter, aforesaid. (5) That upon the 28th of November, 1891, one A. N. Webb, at Remini aforesaid, deliv ered to the agent of the defendant thereat, for transmission and delivery by the defendant to the plaintiff, in Sumter aforesaid, a telegraphic message addressed by him to the said plaintiff, in the words following, to wit: 'Come to Remini soon as possible. Man cut and shot;' and the said A. N. Webb then and there duly prepaid to the defendant's agent at Remini aforesaid the proper toll or charges therefor, and the said defendant, by and through its agent as aforesaid, for the consideration aforesaid, then and there undertook and agreed with the plaintiff forthwith to transmit the said message to Sumter aforesaid, and deliver the same to the plaintiff. (6) That the defendant failed and neglected to perform the contract so agreed to be performed on his part, as aforesaid, but, on the contrary, the said defendant so unreasonably and negligently delayed the transmission and delivery of the said message to the plaintiff that the plaintiff was wholly unable to answer the summons therein contained, to the damage of the plaintiff one hundred dollars. Wherefore the plaintiff demands judgment for the sum of two hundred dollars and costs."

Lee & Morse, for appellant

Hyde & Reynolds, for respondent

McGOWAN, J. This was an action for damages, brought by the plaintiff, a physician, against the defendant, for a failure to deliver one telegram alleged to have been sent to him, and to deliver in time another telegram, sent by one A. N. Webb from Remini, a village in the neighborhood, to the plaintiff at Sumter, S. C, in the following words: "Come to Remini soon as possible. Man cut and shot." The complaint contained two causes of action: First for a failure to deliver a telegram sent; and the second for delay in delivering another message. The allegations in each were substantially the same: "That one A. N. Webb...