Western Union Tel. Co. v. Jeanes
| Citation | 31 S.W. 186 |
| Parties | WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. JEANES. |
| Decision Date | 13 May 1895 |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
W. W. Wilkins, for plaintiff in error. Cunningham & Cunningham, for defendant in error.
This suit was brought by the defendant in error to recover of the plaintiff in error damages for the negligent delay of the company in the delivery of a telegraphic message. The message was written by the brother of the defendant in error at Falcon, Tenn., and was delivered to the company's agent at that place for transmission and delivery to defendant in error at Belcher, Tex. It informed the latter that his father was very low with catarrhal pneumonia, and that the sender did not think he would live very long. It was received at Belcher at 11:26 a. m., on March 11th, but was not delivered until 8:30 a. m. the next day. The father died on the 12th day of the same month, and was buried on the 13th, in the afternoon. The defendant in error took the first train for Falcon after the receipt of the message, but did not arrive until the 14th. If the message had been promptly delivered, he would have left 24 hours earlier, and would have been present at his father's burial. There was testimony to show that, if he had telegraphed his relatives, notifying them of his coming, the burial would have been postponed until his arrival. Upon the subject of the plaintiff's negligence the court charged the jury as follows: "If you find that after the plaintiff received said message he failed to exercise that degree of diligence to reach his father before his burial that an ordinarily prudent person would have used under the same circumstances, and if his failure to use such diligence contributed directly and proximately to his failure to see his father before his burial, then you will find for the defendant, notwithstanding you may find that the defendant was guilty of negligence in the delivery of said message to plaintiff." The following special instruction was requested on behalf of the defendant, but was refused by the court: "If you believe from the evidence that the plaintiff failed to reply to the message in question, announcing that he was on his way to his father's, and that, if he had sent...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Morgan v. Young, 4386.
...be entitled to recover that part of the damages which his diligence, if exercised, could not have avoided." And see Western Union Tel. Co. v. Jeanes, 88 Tex. 230, 31 S.W. 186; Waco Artesian Water Co. v. Cauble, 19 Tex.Civ. App. 417, 47 S.W. 538; Western Union Tel. Co. v. Kitchen, Tex.Civ.Ap......
-
Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Sweeney
...(Citing many authorities.) This rule was followed by our Supreme Court in an opinion by Chief Justice Gaines in Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Jeanes, 88 Tex. 230, 31 S.W. 186. See, also, Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Williams, 57 Tex.Civ.App. 267, 122 S.W. Under the foregoing authorities ......
-
Texas & N. O. R. Co. v. Harrington
...if any, constituting contributory negligence on the part of the deceased, and submitted the same to the jury. Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Jeanes, 88 Tex. 230, 31 S. W. 186. In Railway v. Mangham, 95 Tex. 413, 67 S. W. 765, the very point was certified by the Fifth Court of Civil Appeals,......
-
Kansas City, M. & O. Ry. Co. of Texas v. McCunningham
...the loss to increase, and then hold the wrongdoer liable for the loss which he might have prevented." See, also, W. U. Telegraph Co. v. Jeanes, 88 Tex. 232, 31 S. W. 186; Wabash Ry. Co. v. Campbell, 219 Ill. 313, 76 N. E. 346, 3 L. R. A. (N. S.) As in opposition to the foregoing authorities......