Western Union Tel. Co. v. Ragland
| Decision Date | 27 February 1901 |
| Citation | 61 S.W. 421 |
| Parties | WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. RAGLAND. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Hunt county court; R. D. Thompson, Judge.
Action by John Ragland against the Western Union Telegraph Company. From a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the defendant appeals. Reversed.
Geo. H. Fearons and N. L. Lindsley, for appellant. Thos. W. Thompson and Craddock & Looney, for appellee.
Appellee sued for damages for mental anguish, loss of time, and physical suffering on account of the nondelivery of the following message: There was testimony of the following facts: The message, when it reached Commerce, read, "Will Bone," and therefore failed to be delivered. There was testimony which tends to show that the mistake in the name of the addressee was due to negligence of defendant's agents in transmitting it. A stipulation on the face of the telegram read:
Under assignments 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, appellant insists that it is not liable, except for the toll paid; this not having been a repeated message. There was testimony tending to show that the change in the name came about from want of reasonable care by an intermediate agent, and the stipulation invoked would not avail defendant if such was found to be the fact. The message was urgent, upon its face, and defendant had agencies by which it could have been transmitted to Commerce through but one relay station, and been handled but once while en route, whereas it was sent around by Jefferson, Dallas, and Ft. Worth, through three relay stations, and was taken from the wires and handled several times. It was testified that, the less number of relay stations a message passes through, the less likelihood there is of mistakes. There was evidence, also, that the message as taken and dispatched at Dallas read, correctly, "Will Rone," but as taken from the wire at Ft. Worth it read, "Will Bone," and this was due to the fact that the operator at Ft. Worth misread the relay copy. It was further shown ...
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