Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Ferris

This was an action to recover the penalty prescribed by section 4176, R. S. 1881, against telegraph companies negligently failing to transmit messages delivered to them during usual office hours.

The complaint avers that, on the 2d day of December, 1882, the plaintiff delivered a certain message to the defendant’s operator, at its office in Shelbyville, Indiana, for transmission to Chicago, Illinois, and that according to its regulations he paid to it forty cents as the price of such service. The message to be sent is set out in the body of the complaint and is in the language following:

“Shelby…