Stuart v. Western Union Telegraph Co.

Citations

• 66 Tex. 580
• 18 S.W. 351
• 1885 Tex. LEXIS 11

Syllabus

<p>1. Telegraph company—Contract to deliver message—-Breach—See opinion for a petition setting forth a contract binding a telegraph company to deliver a message promptly, a breach of the contract by the company, and actual damage arising therefrom.</p> <p>2. Damages—Practice—If the facts stated in a petition show a breach of contract, and that the breach is of such character as to authorize a suit as for a tort, all the damages recoverable for the thing done, or omitted, either in an action ex delicto or ex contractu, may be recovered in the one suit.</p> <p>3. Same—Injury to the feelings—If an actionable injury has been done to the name, person or property of the complaining party, he may recover, as actual damages, compensation for the proximate results of the wrongful acts. When injury to the feelings is such result, it forms an element of the actual damage. (Railroad Oo. v. Randall, 50 Tex., 261, etc.)</p> <p>4. Same—That the mental suffering is caused by and contemplated in the doing of the wrongful act, is the principle of the liability, whether the mental suffering is an incident of bodily pain or not.</p> <p>5. Same—Cases reviewed—Railway Oo. v. Levy, 59 Tex., 543; Railway Co. v. Levy, 59 Tex., 56S; and So Relic v. Telegraph Oo., 55 Tex., 810, reviewed and discussed-</p> <p>1. Damages—Compensation—The fact that it may be difficult to ascertain the exact amount of compensation which ought to be made for an injury resulting necessarily from the act of another, is no reason why compensation should not be given.</p> <p>2. Same—If injury necessarily results to the person, property or reputation of one person from the acts of another, violative of a right secured by contract or the general law of the land, the injured person is entitled to damages to compensate • him, whatever may be the elements which make up the injury and form the basis for damages. v</p> <p>3. Same—Mental suffering—Both physical pain and mental suffering, as elements for damages, go back to a