Crew v. Bradstreet Co.

Citations

• 134 Pa. 161
• 19 A. 500
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 681

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. Contracts stipulating for exemption from liability for negligence are not favored by the law, and, in some instances, as in the case of common carriers, they are prohibited entirely, as being against public policy ; in all cases in which they are permitted and effect given to them, such contracts should be construed strictly, with every intendment against the party seeking their protection.</p> <p>2. A company doing business as a commercial agency and for a consideration furnishing to its subscribers a printed book purporting to give, inter alia, the amount of capital paid into the treasuries of mercantile corporations in the United States and Canada, will be liable to a subscriber for negligently publishing in such book a misstatement upon the subject which misleads him to his injury.</p> <p>(«) The contract between such a company and its subscribers, under which such books were furnished, stipulated that said company should not be liable for any loss or injury occasioned by the neglect or other act of any officer or agent of the company, in procuring, collecting and communicating information, and that the company did not guarantee the correctness of such information :</p> <p>3. The exemption from liability conferred by this contract applied to the negligence of particular officers or agents, but not to the negligence of the company as such; wherefore, the company was responsible for a loss occasioned by its issuing such books with a gross error therein, when the information furnished to it by its agents was correct, and the error occurred in the printing of the book. ■</p>