Corcoran v. Postal Telegraph-Cable Co.

Citations

• 80 Wash. 570
• 142 P. 29
• 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1362

Syllabus

<p>Common Law—Rule of Decision. The common law is the rule of decision in the courts of the state of Washington, except where other rules may be prescribed by the constitution and statutes, because of the source of our institutions, and as further declared by legislative enactment in Rem. & Bal. Code, § 143.</p> <p>Damages—Punitive—Allowance. Punitive damages are not recoverable in this state, even when the injury upon which the claim is rested flows from gross negligence or wilful wrong, except when expressly allowed by statute.</p> <p>Telegraphs and Telephones—Delay in Transmission of Messages—Damages—Mental Suffering. Mental suffering, resulting from the negligence of a telegraph company in the delivery of a telegram entrusted to it, is not ground for the allowance of damages, in the absence of statute providing therefor, as it is governed by the common law doctrine, and does not involve its application to new conditions, not being different in principle from cases of negligent delay in conveying messages from one person to another resulting in mental suffering arising before the invention of the telegraph.</p> <p>Same—Delay in Transmission of Messages—Damages. The award of damages in the sum of the price paid by plaintiff for the transmission of a message, which was delayed in delivery by the negligence of defendant, is not a damage so connected with plaintiff’s mental suffering as to warrant the enhancement of the award by the attendant mental suffering occasioned.</p>