Western Union Tel. Co. v. Bell

• Decision Date: 19 December 1900
• Citation: 59 S.W. 918
• Parties: WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. BELL et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

59 S.W. 918

WESTERN UNION TEL. CO. v. BELL et al.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

December 19, 1900.

Appeal from Brown county court; R. P. Conner, Judge.

Action by Thomas Bell and another against the Western Union Telegraph Company. From a judgment for plaintiffs, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Arch Grinnan, for appellant.

KEY, J.

This is a suit against the Western Union Telegraph Company for damages alleged to have resulted from the failure to properly transmit and deliver a cipher telegram. According to the averments of the petition, the plaintiffs, Thomas Bell and H. T. Williams, were engaged in the business of buying and selling cotton, under the firm name of Thomas Bell, in Brownwood, Tex., and maintained numerous branch offices, with local agents in charge, in the surrounding territory, one of which was at Comanche, Tex.; the local agent there being John R. Day. The gist of the complaint is that on October 12, 1899, the market value of cotton in Comanche and surrounding territory was $6.25 per 100 pounds, on a basis of middling cotton; that on said day appellant's agent at Brownwood, for a consideration then paid, agreed and undertook to transmit and deliver to the plaintiffs' agent, Day, at Comanche, Tex., a cipher message, the importance of which was known to said agent of the telegraph company, and which message authorized Day to buy cotton at the price and on the basis above stated; that said agent had previously been offered a large quantity of cotton on a basis of $6.42 per 100 pounds, and on said day had telegraphed the fact of such offer to appellees, and asked for instructions; that the message delivered by the appellees to the agent of appellant at Brownwood was not properly transmitted, and, as delivered to Day at Comanche, it authorized him to purchase cotton on the basis offered; that thereupon Day purchased for appellees 120,455 pounds of cotton at $6.42 per 100 pounds, and also purchased 26,932 pounds at $6.36 per 100 pounds; that he paid 17 cents per 100 pounds above the market value of the first lot, and 11 cents per 100 pounds above the market value of the second lot, thereby entailing a loss to appellees of $204.75 on the first, and $29.60 on the second, lot of cotton so purchased. The petition does not allege that, if the telegram had been properly transmitted to Day, he could have purchased the cotton at a lower price, nor does it show when or for how much appellees sold the cotton. In fact, there is no averment in the...