Western Union Tel. Co. v. Krichbaum

• Decision Date: 14 January 1902
• Parties: WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. KRICHBAUM.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

31 So. 607

132 Ala. 535

WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. KRICHBAUM.

Supreme Court of Alabama

January 14, 1902

Appeal from circuit court, Jefferson county; A. A. Coleman, Judge.

Action by J. W. Krichbaum against the Western Union Telegraph Company. From a judgment in favor of plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

The complaint as originally filed contained two counts. The plaintiff subsequently withdrew the second count of the complaint. The first count was in words and figures as follows: "The plaintiff claims of the defendant nineteen hundred (1,900) dollars as damages, for that on, to wit, the 17th day of August, 1898, the defendant was a body corporate and engaged in the business of receiving and sending telegrams for hire or reward, and on said 17th day of August 1898, the plaintiff's father, J. J. Krichbaum, departed this life near Roddy, in the state of Tennessee, and Henry Krichbaum, a brother of the plaintiff, acting as agent for and on behalf of the plaintiff, having prior thereto been requested so to act, presented to the defendant's agent at Roddy, Tennessee (which was one of defendant's telegraph offices for receiving and sending out telegraph messages), a message informing plaintiff that his father was dead, at the same time paying said agent for the transmission of said message; and informed defendant's said agent at Roddy, Tennessee, in substance and effect, that he had been requested by his brother (the plaintiff) to notify the plaintiff of his father's condition; and the said agent at Roddy, Tennessee, received said telegram, and transmitted the same to defendant's telegraph office at Birmingham Alabama, to be delivered to plaintiff; and the said telegram was received by defendant's agent at Birmingham, Alabama but defendant negligently and carelessly failed to deliver said telegram to plaintiff, as it was in duty bound to do, by reason whereof plaintiff was kept in ignorance of the death of his father, and was prevented from attending the funeral and burial of his father, as he could and would have done had said telegram been delivered within a reasonable time after its transmission to Birmingham, Alabama. And plaintiff avers that he did not know of his father's death until several days after the same occurred, and after his father had been buried, by reason whereof he suffered great anguish and mental suffering. And plaintiff avers that defendant's failure to deliver said telegram was in violation of a duty which it owed to plaintiff, and was done in utter disregard of plaintiff's rights; wherefore he brings this suit." To the complaint defendant demurred upon the following ground: "That damages for mental suffering and anguish are not recoverable under the allegations of the complaint." This demurrer was overruled, and the defendant duly excepted. It is unnecessary on the present appeal to set out in detail any of the facts of the case. There were verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, assessing his damages at $350. The defendant appeals, and assigns as error the several rulings of the trial court to which exceptions were reserved.

Walker, Tillman, Campbell & Walker, for appellant.

TYSON J.

Action for damages against telegraph company for failure to deliver message. The complaint contained two counts, but one of them was withdrawn. The count upon which the cause was tried was demurred to on the ground that damages for mental suffering and anguish were not recoverable, there being no other damages claimed. Whether the ...