Western Union Tel. Co. v. Murray

• Citation: 68 S.W. 549
• Parties: WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. MURRAY.
• Decision Date: 16 April 1902
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

68 S.W. 549

WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. MURRAY.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

April 16, 1902.

Appeal from district court, Bexar county; J. L. Camp, Judge.

Action by G. M. Murray against the Western Union Telegraph Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Judgment reformed and affirmed.

Webb & Finley, for appellant. P. H. Swearingen, for appellee.

JAMES, C. J.

Appellee's wife at 3 p. m. on November 19, 1900, at San Antonio, received a telegram from Houston, from her mother, announcing that her brother was not expected to live. She, with her young baby, took the train at 8:30 that night for Houston. Another message from Houston arrived at San Antonio at 5:32 p. m., which was not delivered until nearly midnight, and long after Mrs. Murray had taken the train for Houston. This telegram would have informed her that her brother had "died of contagious disease. Better not come." The petition alleged that on arriving at Houston, and at the house, about a mile from the depot, not knowing that her brother had a contagious disease, she dismissed the hack that she had taken (there being no one to meet her at the depot), and rushed into the house, and was informed for the first time that her brother had died of smallpox; that she, then greatly fatigued and worried, and with great alarm and anguish at having exposed herself and baby to smallpox, left the house, but was compelled to wait in the cold and rain with her baby exposed for an hour until a carriage could be obtained, and as soon thereafter as she was able she returned to San Antonio. The matters of damage, as alleged, were: "That by reason of the useless trip, and the anxiety and exposure to the rain and cold and contagion occasioned by defendant's negligence, she was taken sick, and remained in bed one week, and was unwell and wholly unable to do any work or attend to her domestic duties for more than eight months thereafter, incurring great mental and physical suffering; loss of time of the value of $200; doctor's bills of the reasonable value of $50; medical bills of the reasonable value of $500; railroad fare expended, $12.60; hack hire paid, $4; and sleepers $4." "By reason of defendant's said gross negligence, plaintiffs have suffered great mental anguish, physical pain, loss of time, and have been forced to pay doctor's bills and medicine bills, and have been put to the expense of railroad fare and for the telegram, to plaintiffs' damage in the sum of $1,900." The court charged the jury that in arriving at the amount, if any, they found for plaintiff, they might take into consideration the amount of money, if any, necessarily expended by plaintiff's wife for railroad transportation to and from Houston; the amount, if any, expended by plaintiff's wife for hack hire; and if they found that plaintiff's wife was taken sick soon after her return from Houston, and by reason of her sickness, if any, suffered mental and physical pain, and employed a physician to attend her, and that such sickness, if any, and mental and physical suffering, if any, were proximately caused by defendant's negligence, if any, and, in the light of all the circumstances, ought to have been foreseen by defendant company as a natural and probable consequence of its negligence, if any, "then this may also be considered, and also such reasonable amounts paid for physician's services, if any." The court further instructed the jury not to allow anything for the sickness if caused by grief which she suffered on account of the death of her brother.

Without undertaking to follow the many assignments of error, we shall dispose of the case by showing wherein, as we think, plaintiff claims, and the court permitted the jury to find, damages that were too remote. We are agreed that the expenses of the trip, going and returning, would be recoverable, if, but for defendant's negligence, the trip would not have been made. We also are agreed that it might reasonably have been anticipated that, under the circumstances, she, not being apprised of the presence of a contagious disease, would enter the house and become exposed to the contagion; and mental anxiety for herself ensuing on account of such exposure, and the natural consequences thereof, would also be proper to consider. But we are clearly of opinion that such casual events as her having dismissed her carriage on arriving at the house, and thereafter having to wait upon the gallery of the house until another carriage could be sent for, and in the meantime to be exposed to the weather, and thereby contract malaria, are...