Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Ragsdale

• Citation: 111 Miss. 550,71 So. 818
• Decision Date: 22 May 1916
• Docket Number: 17976
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Parties: WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO. v. RAGSDALE

71 So. 818

111 Miss. 550

WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO. v. RAGSDALE

No. 17976

Supreme Court of Mississippi

May 22, 1916

APPEAL from the circuit court of Hinds county, HON. W. A. HENRY Judge.

Suit by Wm. A. Ragsdale against the Western Union Telegraph Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.

The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.

Reversed and remanded.

J. B Harris, for appellant.

Mayes &amp Mayes, for appellee.

OPINION

HOLDEN, J.

This is an appeal from the circuit court of Hinds county, First district, where the appellee, W. A. Ragsdale, recovered a judgment for one thousand dollars damages against the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the telegraph company appeals to this court. The declaration filed by Ragsdale, plaintiff in the court below, contains two counts, and seems to be, in substance, an action for libel; but on the trial of the case, and on this appeal here, the appellee appears to have abandoned his contention of libel, and relies upon his right to recover in tort, which is based upon an alleged false report made in writing, and which false report is alleged to have been made through the gross negligence, maliciousness, and wantonness of the telegraph company. The facts, upon which this suit is based, may be briefly stated as follows: Judge A. K. Nippert, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was a stockholder in the American Delinting Company, in which the appellee, W. A. Ragsdale, was also a stockholder and manager. The American Delinting Company was a corporation, having its principal office in Jackson, Miss. On October 7, 1913, Judge Nippert sent the following message, a night letter, to the appellee Ragsdale:

"Cincinnati, Ohio, 7th, 1913.

"W. A. Ragsdale, Care American Delinting Co., Jackson, Miss.: Want to send a young man to Jackson and West Point prior to engaging him to assist in company's business. When and where can you meet him? Wire me immediately.

[Signed]

NIPPERT."

It appears from the evidence that the appellant telegraph company had a main office in Cincinnati and several branch offices there, the branch offices being located in different parts of the city, for the convenient handling and dispatch of business; that messages addressed to parties in Cincinnati would come to the main office, and from the main office be transmitted to a branch office most conveniently located to the place of delivery, and messages to be sent from Cincinnati were received at the branch offices and transmitted to the main office, and from the main office would be transmitted to the point of destination; that messages to and from Cincinnati were handled in this way, by various employees in the branch and main offices. The above message set forth was received at a branch office in Cincinnati, known as the "MK" branch office, by Mrs. J. Q. Dobell, the telegraph operator who had charge of that branch office. She was called up by some one at the Mohawk Bank, and asked to send a messenger boy for a message; she replied that she did not have a messenger boy convenient, and shortly afterwards, the party came to the branch office in an automobile and filed a message. She asked the party to leave his address, but he stated that it would be unnecessary, as the party to whom the message was addressed would know the proper address to send the reply to. The message was promptly transmitted to Jackson, Miss. The office of the American Delinting Company was very well known to the employees of the telegraph office at Jackson, it being only about two blocks from the telegraph office. Upon the receipt of this message at Jackson it was immediately given to a messenger boy, one John Pierce, who took it at once to the office of the American Delinting Company, where he found the office locked. He then made inquiry of a Mr. Dreyfus, occupying an office in the same building, and was informed by Mr. Dreyfus to inquire of Mr. Montgomery, who, it appears, was the secretary of the delinting company. The messenger boy did make inquiry of Mr. Montgomery, and was told by him that Mr. Ragsdale, the appellee, was out of town. The Messenger boy thereupon put a notice under the door, stating that there was a telegram for Mr. Ragsdale. He then took the message back to the telegraph office and gave it to the clerk for attention there. The message was handled in this office by Mrs. J. N. Olsen. She then sent a service message to Cincinnati, reading as follows:

"MK Cincinnati Ohio Undelivered your night letter 7 Ragsdale signed Nippert Office locked Advised party out of city [Signed] Jackson, Miss., Oct. 8."

It is well to state here that the telegram in question was a night letter. It is also an undisputed fact that appellee, Ragsdale, was out of the city and did not return until the 13th of October, when he found the notice and went to the telegraph office and got the telegram. Mrs. Olsen, the employee in the office at Jackson, had also mailed a postal card, notifying Ragsdale of the message. The service message last set out above was promptly transmitted to Cincinnati. It went to the main office and from the main office was telegraphed to the branch office MK there at Cincinnati; and here is where the trouble began. When this service message reached the branch office MK, Mrs. Dobel, in charge, sent a service message to the main office, at 1:10 p. m., reading as follows:

"S. Y. S. No. 9 of to-day please deliver message to Judge A. K. Nippert at the courthouse."

She did not say "service" message, and this mistake started the trouble. Mrs. Dobel testifies that the reason she attempted to transmit the message through the main office instead of delivering it to Judge Nippert from her office was that the courthouse where Judge Nippert was presiding as judge was a great distance from office MK, and that it was more convenient to have the message delivered in the way that she undertook. This message was received at the main office by a Mr. Phelan, an employee there. Mr. Phelan testifies that when this service message was received, he sent it into the hands of Miss Loretta Fette, the service clerk on the fifteenth floor of the building, for attention, as ordinarily she ought to have looked up the original Cincinnati relay of the night letter filed by Judge Nippert and the service message addressed to the MK branch office, and returned them to him; but she misunderstood the instructions, as explained by her in her testimony, and on account of the omission of the word "service," she thought that the original message was referred to, and she sent a service message to Jackson, Miss., instructing the Jackson office to deliver the original message to Judge Nippert at the courthouse, meaning the courthouse in Jackson. (It appears that "S. Y. S." means, see your service; and "N. L." means night letter; "MK" indicates the branch office handling the message.) When this service message was received at Jackson, an effort was made to deliver the original message to Judge Nippert at the Jackson courthouse. The service message which was received in the Jackson office by Mrs. Olsen was in these words:

"S. Y. S. to-day Deliver msg to Judge A. K. Nippert at the courthouse our N. L. 7th Ragsdale signed Nippert."

An effort was made to deliver this message to Judge Nippert at the courthouse in Jackson, but, of course, he could not be found there; and the following service message was sent to Cincinnati on the morning of the 8th:

"S Y. S....