Bank of Havelock v. Western Union Telegraph Co.

Citations

• 141 F. 522
• 4 L.R.A.N.S. 181
• 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 4027

Syllabus

<p>1. Telegraph Companies—Negligence—Care to Ascertain Identity and Authority oe Senders oe Messages—Extent and Limit.</p> <p>In the absence of notice of facts or circumstances which would awaken inquiry and arouse suspicion in the mind of a person of ordinary prudence and intelligence in a like situation regarding the authority to send it of the party who presents a message for transmission, the exercise by a telegraph company and its operators of reasonable care to receive and transmit genuine and authorized messages only does not require them to investigate or ascertain the identity, or authority to send it, of the person who tenders a message for transmission, whether that message is in writing, or is spoken directly to the operator, or is communicated to him by telephone.</p> <p>But, when such facts or circumstances come to the notice of the company, or of its acting operator, the exercise of reasonable care to transmit genuine and authorized messages only requires the party who receives the notice either to investigate and ascertain the authority of the sender before transmitting the message, or to communicate the facts and circumstances and the inquiry or suspicion to the addressee at or before its delivery.</p> <p>2. Same—False Representation by Unauthorized Telegram—Damages.</p> <p>Action by mortgagees against a telegraph company for loss of their lien on cattle worth $3,500, caused by the receipt over the telephone, from one whose voice was not known to the operator and who had no authority to send it, and the transmission to the plaintiffs to whom it was addressed, of this telegram: “We will pay Barnes’ draft for thirty-five hundred. Bank of Denison.” Held:</p> <p>(1) The telegram was not so indefinite that reliance and action might not lawfully be based upon it.</p> <p>(2) The loss of the lien upon the cattle was not an unnatural or improbable effect of the delivery of the telegram, and the damages resulting from this loss were not too remote to warrant