G., C. & S. F. R'y Co. v. Levy

Citations

• 59 Tex. 542
• 1883 Tex. LEXIS 223

Syllabus

<p>1. Contract on Sunday. — A contract made on Sunday to secure decent burial for.. the dead and to procure the presence of parents of the deceased is, in contemplation Of law, a contract to do a work of necessity and charity, and therefore valid;' following Doyle v. Lynn, 118 Mass., 197.</p> <p>2. Damages.— The tendency of decisions by courts in states where technical forms of Í) action have been discarded, is to apply the same rule for the measure of damages in cases based upon contract, which are attended with circumstances of aggravation, that is apphed in actions founded in tort solely.</p> <p>3. Same. — A railway company which owned and operated for hire a telegraph line received a message on Sunday to be transmitted to one living at a place where it maintained a telegraph office on its line. The message announced the death of the sender’s wife and child, and was directed to his father, requesting his presence. Held, that the sender was entitled to recover against the compa ly, over and above such sum as he paid for the transmission of the message, if there was wilful or gross negligence in failing to deliver the message, such an amount of ex >mplary damages as a jury might award under proper instructions. When nominal damage is shown in such a case, it is for the jury to measure the exemplary damage, whose verdict, if excessive, would be set aside.</p> <p>4. Distinguished. — This case distinguished from So Relle v. W. U. Tel. Co., 55 Tex., 309. There the action was by him who received the message, and who showed no nominal or special damage; here the plaintiff was the sender, with whom the contract for its delivery existed, and whose right to recover nominal damage was shown.</p> <p>5. Damages. — A telegraph company which is guilty of gross negligence or total failure in delivering a message of a strictly private nature,, announcing th“ death of a relative of the sender, and desiring aid and the like, cannot escape with m >re nominal damages on account of the