Squire v. Western Union Telegraph Co.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for neglect to deliver a telegraphic message seasonably. At the trial in the superior court these facts appeared: The defendants were a corporation established under the laws of New York, having a line of electric telegraph to Buffalo from Albany, where it connected with a line of the American Telegraph Company, (a distinct corporation,) which ran from Albany to Boston. The plaintiffs were pork dealers at Boston.
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Tort for neglect to deliver a telegraphic message seasonably. At the trial in the superior court these facts appeared: The defendants were a corporation established under the laws of New York, having a line of electric telegraph to Buffalo from Albany, where it connected with a line of the American Telegraph Company, (a distinct corporation,) which ran from Albany to Boston. The plaintiffs were pork dealers at Boston. On March 19, 1866, the firm of Metcalf & Cushing, pork dealers at Buffalo, having on hand two hundred and fifty dressed hogs, wrote to the plaintiffs by mail, offering to sell…
1Opinion of the CourtBigelow, C. J.
The only question open on these exceptions is as to the rule by which the plaintiffs’ damages are to be measured.
We think it clear that they are not limited by any special contract between the parties. There is no evidence that any such contract was entered into. The terms and conditions on which the message was- received and transmitted by the company at Boston to the defendants at Albany do not purport on their face to be intended to apply to the service which might be performed by any other company in the transmission of the message beyond the terminus of the line of the company to which…
2Cited by56 opinions
- Western Union Telegraph Co. v. HallSupreme Court of the United States · 1888
- Baldwin v. . the United States Telegraph Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1871
- Lemos v. MaddenWyoming Supreme Court · 1921
- Daughtery v. American Union Telegraph Co.Supreme Court of Alabama · 1883
- Williams v. Telegraph Co.Supreme Court of North Carolina · 1904
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