Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Totten

Citations

• 141 F. 533
• 72 C.C.A. 591
• 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 4028

Syllabus

<p>1. Damages—Proof Must Separate Legal from Illegal.</p> <p>Proof in an action of tort of a certain amount of loss, which includes both legal damages and those too remote to warrant recovery, in the absence of any evidence from which the jury can determine the amount of either, will not sustain a verdict for more than nominal damages. Courts and juries may not lawfully transfer the property or money of one citizen to another by guess.</p> <p>2. Telegraph Companies—Negligence—Duty to Exercise Reasonable Cabe to Ascertain Identity of Senders of Messages.</p> <p>In the absence of notice of facts or circumstances which would awaken inquiry and arouse suspicion in the mind of a person of ordinary prudence and intelligence in a like situation regarding the authority to send it of the party who presents a message for transmission, the exercise by a telegraph company and its operators of reasonable care to receive and transmit genuine and authorized messages only does not require them to investigate or ascertain the identity or authority to send it of the person who tenders a message for transmission, whether that message is in writing, or is spoken directly to the operator, or is communicated to him by telephone.</p> <p>But, when such facts or circumstances come to the notice of the company or of its acting operator, the exercise of reasonable care to transmit genuine and authorized messages only requires the party who receives the notice either to investigate and ascertain the authority of the sender before transmitting the message, or to communicate the facts and circumstances and the inquiry or suspicion to the addressee at or before its delivery.</p> <p>8. Same—Receipt, Without Investigation—Evidence of Negligence.</p> <p>The receipt and transmission to the addressee of a message to the effect that a bank, in whose name it is telephoned, will honor the checks or drafts of a beneficiary, by an operator who knows the message is telephoned to him by either the beneficiar