Western Union Tel. Co v. James

• Decision Date: 27 August 1892
• Citation: 16 S.E. 83,90 Ga. 254
• Parties: WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. JAMES.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

16 S.E. 83

90 Ga. 254

WESTERN UNION TEL. CO.

v.JAMES.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Aug. 27, 1892.

Telegraph Companies — Failure to Deliver Message Promptly—Special Damages—Presentation of Claim — Penalties — constitutional

Law.

1. It is competent for the general assembly to require a telegraph company, under a penalty, to deliver a message within a reasonable time after its reception by the company at the office in this state from which the delivery is to be made, whether the message be sent from another office of the company in this state, or from one of its offices in another state. This has been done by the act of October 22, 1887, (Acts 1887, p. 111;) and such act is not in this respect violative of the interstate commerce clause of the federal constitution. The recovery of the statutory penalty in this case was warranted by law and the evidence.

2. While the contractual limitation to 60 days for presenting a claim for damages against a telegraph company does not apply to the statutory penalty, it does apply to all claims for special damages, and operates, not alone against the sender of the message, but against the receiver of it, where the message in question relates to the business of both parties, and is a reply to a previous message sent by the receiver. Where the damage done to the latter by delay in delivering the message was in breaking up negotiations for the sale of cotton of a low grade, and preventing a sale which would otherwise have been consummated, the measure of damages would be the difference between the price which would have been realized by the sale contemplated and the value of the same cotton on that day in the market or, if there was no market for such cotton at the place where stored, its value at the nearest market to that place at which it could be disposed of, together with the expense, if any, of transporting it thither. If it had then no market value anywhere, the measure of damages would be the contract price, less the best price which could afterwards bo obtained for it on the first day it could be sold, and the expense of holding it until that day. Presumptively, in the absence of proof to the contrary, cotton has some market value on every day in the year; and consequently a claim for damages in such a case as the present would be practicable, and might reasonably be required, within 60 days from the time the message was sent, delivery having been made on the following day. The evidence in this case does not show the contrary. This being so, and no claim for damages having been presented within 60 days, no special damages were recoverable.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from superior court, Early county; J. H. Gerry, Judge.

Action by David W. James against the Western Union Telegraph Company to recover the...