Western Union Tel Co v. James

• Decision Date: 04 May 1896
• Docket Number: No. 206,206
• Citation: 162 U.S. 650,16 S.Ct. 934,40 L.Ed. 1105
• Parties: WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. JAMES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

162 U.S. 650

16 S.Ct. 934

40 L.Ed. 1105

WESTERN UNION TEL. CO.

v JAMES.

No. 206.

May 4, 1896.

John F. Dillon, for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Justice PECKHAM delivered the opinion of the court.

This action was brought by the defendant in error against the telegraph company to recover the amount of a penalty which the plaintiff below alleged the company had incurred, and also to recover damages which the plaintiff alleged he had sustained by reason of the failure of the company to promptly deliver a telegraphic dispatch directed to plaintiff at his residence in Blakely, in the state of Georgia.

The statute under which the action was brought was passed by the legislature of the above-named state, October 22, 1887, and reads as follows:

'An act to prescribe the duty of electric telegraph companies as to receiving and transmitting dispatches, to prescribe penalties for violations thereof, and for other purposes.

'Section 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of the state of Georgia, and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same, that from and after the passage of this act, every electric telegraph company with a line of wires, wholly or partly in this state, and engaged in telegraphing for the public, shall, during the usual office hours, receive dispatches, whether from other telegraphic lines or from individuals; and, on payment of the usual charges according to the regulations of such company, shall transmit and deliver the same with impartiality and good faith, and with due diligence, under penalty of one hundred dollars, which penalty may be recovered by suit in a justice or other court having jurisdiction thereof, by either the sender of the dispatch, or the person to whom sent or directed, whichever may first sue: provided, that nothing herein shall be construed as impairing or in any was modifying the right of any person to recover damages for any such breach of contract or duty by any telegraph company, and said penalty and said damages may, if the party so elect, be recovered in the same suit.

'Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, that such companies shall deliver all dispatches to the persons to whom the same are addressed or to their agents, on payment of any charges due for the same: provided, such persons or agents reside within one mile of the telegraphic station or within the city or town in which such station is.

'Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, that in all cases the liability of said companies for messages in cipher, in whole or in part, shall be the same as though the same were not in cipher.

'Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, that all laws or parts of laws in conflict with this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed.'

Laws 1887, p. 111.

The plaintiff recovered in the trial court the statutory penalty of $100, sued for, and also the sum of $242.60 damages, for the nondelivery of the telegram in question, and upon appeal to the supreme court of Georgia that court reversed the judgment as far as it was based upon the actual damages claimed, but affirmed it for the penalty of $100, provided for by the statute above quoted. 16 S. E. 83. Under the direction of the supreme court the plaintiff remitted the claim for damages, and accordingly the judgment for the penalty and for costs was affirmed, and from that judgment the company prosecuted a writ of error from this court.

The defendant, by its answer, denied that it had been guilty of any violation of the statute in question, and among other defenses it set up by an amended plea that the plaintiff ought not to recover the statutory penalty of $100 sued for, because the message in question was an interstate message, and part of interstate commerce. Upon the trial, the court in its charge to the jury stated: 'I charge you that, if the defendant telegraph company undertook to transmit to this place a message which had been paid for at the other end of the line, and did fail to deliver the message to James within a reasonable time from the time it was received, the plaintiff is entitled to recover for the failure to deliver $100 as a penalty fixed upon that act by law.' The court also charged as follows: 'I charge you that, if you find that the message was not delivered within a reasonable time under the attending circumstances, your verdict should be for the plaintiff upon both propositions,' which included the claim for the penalty and for actual damages.

The following facts are stated in the bill of exceptions: The plaintiff, who was a cotton merchant in Blakely, Ga., on the 4th day of November, 1890, sent a message from his residence to Tullis & Co., who were in the same business in Eufaula, in the state of Alabama, offering to sell certain cotton on terms named in the message, and asked to have an answer that night. Tullis & Co. received the messa e on that day, and at once sent a message in reply, accepting the offer of the plaintiff upon certain conditions. This message was received at Blakely late in the evening of November 4th, but was not delivered until the morning of November 5th. The plaintiff alleged that the delivery was not made with due diligence, and the result of the delay in the delivery of the message was, as he stated, the loss of the sale of the cotton upon the terms mentioned in the message. He therefore brought his action to recover both the penalty and the actual damages which he alleged he had sustained by reason of this failure on the part of the company to deliver the message with due diligence. By the decision of the supreme court the claim for damages was not sustained, and the judgment given was solely for the penalty.

The only question, therefore, before this court is whether the statute of the state of Georgia, providing for the recovery of such penalty, is a valid exercise of the power of the state in relation to messages by telegraph from points outside and directed to some point within the state of Georgia.

The plaintiff in error insists that the act in question is a violation of that portion of section 8 of article 1 of the federal constitution, which empowers congress 'to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes.' The validity of the statute is based upon the general power of the state to enact such laws in relation to persons and property within its borders as may promote the public health, the public morals, and the general prosperity and safety of its inhabitants. This power is somewhat generally described as the police power of the state, a detailed definition of which has been said to be difficult, if not impossible, to give. However extensive the power may be, it cannot encroach upon the powers of the federal government in regard to rights granted or secured by the federal constitution. New Orleans Gaslight Co. v. Louisiana Light & Heat Producing & Manuf'g Co., 115 U. S. 650, 661, 6 Sup. Ct. 252; Walling v. People, 116 U. S. 446, 460, 6 Sup. Ct. 454; Railroad Co. v. Hefley, 158 U. S. 98, 15 Sup. Ct. 802.

It has been settled by the adjudications of this court that telegraph lines, when extending through different states, are instruments of commerce, which are protected by the above clause in the federal constitution, and that the messages passing over such lines from one state to another constitute a portion of commerce itself. Pensacola Tel. Co. v. Western Union Tel. Co., 96 U. S. 1; Telegraph Co. v. Texas, 105 U. S. 460; Telegraph Co. v. Pendleton, 122 U. S. 347, 7 Sup. Ct. 1126. Such messages come within the protecting clause of the constitution just quoted, and, if the statute in question can be construed as regulating commerce between the states, the statute would be invalid on that account.

The congress of the United States, by the act of July 24, 1866 (chapter 230), legislated upon the supject of telegraph companies. That legislation has become a part of the United States Revised Statutes (sections 5263-5269, both inclusive). The sections referred to do not, however, touch the subjectmatter of the delivery of messages as provided for in the state statute. The provision in the section of the Revised Statutes as to the precedence to be given to the messages of officers of the government in relation to their official business are not inconsistent with or in any manner opposed to the provisions of the Georgia act, nor are they upon the same subject, within the meaning of the rule which permits state legislation in some instances only until congress shall have spoken.

The company now contends that under the cases decided in this court, some of which are above cited, and by reason of the act of congress just mentioned, it is so far within the commerce clause of the federal constitution as to be protected from any state legislation of the character of the act in question. It is urged that, although there is no tatute of congress expressly providing a penalty for a failure to deliver telegraphic messages impartially and with due diligence, yet still the very fact of the absence of such legisla- tion is equivalent to a declaration by congress that no penalty should be affixed, and that the company should be left free to pursue its business untrammeled by any state legislation upon the subject.

In regard to those matters relating to commerce which are not of a nature to be affected by locality, but which necessarily ought to be the same over the whole country, it has been frequently held that the silence of congress upon such a subject, over which it had unquestioned jurisdiction, was equivalent to a declaration that in those respects commerce should be free, and unregulated by any statutory enactment. Welton v. State, 91 U. S. 275, 282; Hall v. De Cuir, 95 U. S. 485, 490. The matters upon which the silence of congress is equivalent to affirmative legislation are national in their character, and such as to fairly require uniformity of regulation upon the subject-matter involved affecting all the states alike. County of Mobile v. Kimball, ...