Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Bassett

Citations

• 111 Miss. 468
• 71 So. 750

Syllabus

<p>1. Commerce. State regulations. Telegraph companies. Negligence in transmitting messages. Limitation of liability. Remoteness.</p> <p>A suit for damages for a mistake in the transmission of a telegram between points in this state where the message had to go out of the state in order to reach its destination, where the contract was made before the Act, Cong. June 18, 1910, ch. 309, section 7, 36 Stat. 544, U. S. Comp. St. 1913, section 8563, including telegraph cotnpanies as public service agencies under federal control, was governed by the laws of this state.</p> <p>2. Negligence in Transmitting Message. Limitations of liability.</p> <p>Under Constitution 1890, paragraph 195, declaring telegraph companies common carriers in their line of business subject to liability as such, a telegraph company cannot limit its liability for, negligence in sending a telegram by stipulating against liability-in case of unrepeated or cipher messages.</p> <p>3. Telegraphs and Telephones. Negligence in transmission. Remoteness.</p> <p>Where a defendant telegraph company, 'received a message for plaintiff, the manager of a base ball team, stating that he could get games “no guarantee,” changed the words in transmission to “to guarantee,” in consequence of which plaintiff took his team to such game, which he would not have done had the message been correctly transmitted and thereby incurred expenses, the damages were the direct consequence of the negligence and were not too remote to be recoverable.</p>