The Western Union Tel. Co. v. Tyler

• Decision Date: 30 September 1874
• Citation: 1874 WL 9100,74 Ill. 168,24 Am.Rep. 279
• Parties: THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANYv.JAMES E. TYLER et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

74 Ill. 168

1874 WL 9100 (Ill.)

24 Am.Rep. 279

THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY

v.JAMES E. TYLER et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September Term, 1874.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Cook county; the Hon. JOSEPH E. GARY, Judge, presiding.

Messrs. DENT & BLACK, and Messrs. WILLIAMS & THOMPSON, for the appellant.

Messrs. COOPER, GARNETT & PACKARD, for the appellees.

Mr. JUSTICE BREESE delivered the opinion of the Court:

This case was before this court at the September term, 1871, and reported in 60 Ill. 421. It was then ably argued by counsel and fully considered by the court. The authorities were critically examined, and it was found they were not entirely harmonious as to the principles which should be applied to and govern telegraph companies, leaving this court at full liberty to adopt such rules and apply such principles to them, as might seem best calculated to protect those who are compelled to resort to those wonderful instrumentalities by which they operate, and at the same time impose no unnecessary hardship or liability upon them.

The cause having been remanded, a new trial has been had, and the court below, as in duty bound, applied to the cause the principles we had recognized as correct, the result of which was a verdict and judgment for the plaintiffs, in an amount sufficient to cover the damages they had sustained by the negligence of the defendants in transmitting their message.

The first appeal was taken by the plaintiffs in the action, they complaining, justly, as we thought, that through and by the misdirection of the court to the jury as to the law of the case, they had been permitted to recover only the amount of the company's charges for sending the message, allowing them no damages for the loss they had suffered by reason of their negligent and careless mistake.

This appeal is taken by the telegraph company, and great efforts have been made to induce this court to depart from the ground it occupied on the first appeal, by questioning the correctness of the principles which governed our ruling. These have caused us to re-examine that case and those principles, to explore anew the whole ground, and we desire to say, and that most emphatically, there is nothing in the opinion then delivered we desire to retract or modify, fully believing it is sanctioned by reason, by law and by justice, alike demanded by public policy and public necessity.

The rule there announced is, that the usual regulations exempting companies from liability for errors in unrepeated messages, exempts them only for errors arising from causes beyond their own control, and that the inaccuracy of the message being proved, the onus of relieving themselves from the presumption of negligence thereby raised, rests upon the company.

And in regard to the regulation of the company requiring messages to be repeated in order to insure correct results, for which the sender is to pay fifty per cent in addition to the original cost, we endeavored to show, that such was then the perfection to which the art of telegraphy had reached, that the real object of such a requirement was to increase the revenue of the companies. The proposition may be thus stated: The company engages to use all proper skill and care in transmitting a message over its wires for the established rates. The duty at once arises, the charges being paid, to transmit this message as delivered--not a different message, but the one de livered and no other--the sender has paid his money to have this message sent. The undertaking of the company is, prima facie, to send it correctly, and if their wires and instruments are in proper order, and their operators skillful and careful, it will traverse the wires precisely in the words and figures which composed it when placed upon the wires, and is sure, in that shape and form, to reach its destination, no atmospheric causes intervening to prevent. The very fact that but few cases of negligence have been brought against these companies is strong proof they do, in almost all cases, transmit messages correctly, and they can always do it if they take proper care, have the requisite skill and use proper instruments. If they will do all this, there is no need of repeating a message, and it must be regarded as a contrivance to swell their receipts. In the ordinary course of...