Legal Opinion

Ellis v. American Telegraph Co.

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided October 15, 1866PublishedCited by 5 opinions

Tort against a telegraph company alleged to be “ a corporation established by law and having a place of business in New Bedford,” to' recover damages resulting from an error in the transmission of a message from Boston to the plaintiff in New Bedford. At the trial in the superior court, before Ames, J., it appeared that the message was offered to the defendants by H. T. Meserve upon a printed blank, and was in the following form : “ American Telegraph Company.

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1Opinion of the CourtBigelow, C. J.

These exceptions open an inquiry into the nature and extent of the duties and liabilities which are assumed *230by those who are engaged in carrying on the business within this commonwealth of sending messages by means of the electric telegraph. It appears to have been taken for granted at the trial of the case, as it certainly was in the arguments of learned counsel at the bar of this court, that the rights of the parties were to be determined solely by having recourse to the rules and principles of the common law’. This we think is an error. We entertain no doubt that these would have been…

2Cases cited2 opinions

Birney v. New York & Washington Printing Telegraph Co.Court of Appeals of Maryland · 1862
De Rutte v. New York, Albany & Buffalo Electric Magnetic Telegraph Co.New York Court of Common Pleas · 1866

3Cited by5 opinions

Weld v. . Postal Telegraph-Cable Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1913
Coit v. Western Union Telegraph Co.California Supreme Court · 1900
Western Union Telegraph Co. v. CrallSupreme Court of Kansas · 1888
Halsted v. . Postal Telegraph-Cable Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1908
Kennedy v. DickeyCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1904