Reliance Lumber Co. v. W. U. Telegraph Co.

Citations

• 58 Tex. 394
• 1883 Tex. LEXIS 35

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence —Secondary, when, admissible.— In a suit against a telegraph company for damages resulting from alleged failure to deliver a telegraph message intrusted to the company, parol evidence of the contents of the message may be resorted to by the plaintiff to establish the contents of the message, and this without the necessity of first giving the defendant notice to produce the written message.</p> <p>2. Same — Notice to produce written instrument.—While, as a general rule, notice to produce a written instrument must be given to the party having it in his possession, before secondary evidence of its contents can be received, this rule does not apply in a case where the written instrument is the foundation of the action, and the party having custody of it must know from the very nature of the case that he is charged with its possession.</p> <p>3. Case discussed.— Western Union Tel. Co. v. Hopkins, 49 Ind., 227, discussed and disapproved.</p> <p>4. Cases approved.— Hamilton v. Rice, 15 Tex., 385, and Dean v. Border, 15 Tex., 299, approved.</p> <p>5. Damages.— Damages alleged to have resulted from a failure to deliver a telegram, on account of which failure plaintiff claimed that he had lost the speculative and prospective profits likely to have been made by him from the sale of lumber into which he would have converted logs of wood owned by him, cannot be recovered.</p>