Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Melear

Melear sued the Telegraph Company for $2,902.21 for damages for it's alleged negligent failure to deliver a business code telegram tendered by him to and accepted by it at Jacksonville, Tex., addressed to Anderson, Clayton & Company at Houston, Tex. The message in hsec verbis being as foliowsi “Oleander Blunder Bales additional Making Blunt altogether Besmear Confess,” and meaning when decoded: “We have purchased for your account two hundred bales additional, making three hundred altogether to-day at twenty-four and one-half basis Middling.”

He averred that the telegram was never delivered,…