Christenson & Arndt, Inc. v. Wisconsin Telephone Co.

The defendant relies upon the “privity of contract” rule, and cites several cases from other jurisdictions that uphold the rule. Illustrative of these cases is that of Mentzer v. New England Telephone & Tel. Co. 276 Mass. 478, 177 N. E. 549, which appears with an annotation in 78 A. L. R. 654. Under those cases the duty of a telephone company has been limited to its agreement to place.its subscribers in communication with one another by affording to each a mechanical connection, through its central office, with other subscribers. These cases hold that, although a telephone company breaches…