24 F. 119 | U.S. Circuit Court for the Southern District of Iowa | 1885
The foundation of plaintiffs claim is that by the negligence of the defendants in conveying and’ delivering those messages he lost employment as editor of the Denver Tribune, which he would otherwise have secured, and that as another man did by reason of this negligence get that employnent, for which he received from $4,000 to $5,000 for a period of time during which plaintiff only received a much smaller sum, he is entitled to recover the difference in this action.
The first subject of inquiry, therefore, is the existence of such negligence as would make defendant liable for any damages. The first
It is next argued that the previous course of business between the parties made it the duty of the company to send the dispatch to that office; and, in support of this, the evidence of plaintiff shows that, as private secretary of the governor, he had been in the habit of receiving telegraphic messages from that company at that place, and nowhere else, and that there, he received also telegrams of his own on private business. But it is not stated that any such private messages had been there delivered and received for him when he was absent from the city, or that the company had any reason to suppose that in such case he wished them to be delivered there. In the instance now in question, the defendant communicated with the governor’s office by telephone, and received information, which was true, that plaintiff was out of the city, and would be absent two days. The men in charge of the telegraph office sent the message to the residence of plaintiff, where it was received by his wife in due time, and telegraphed to Patterson, the sender of the message, the information of plaintiff’s absence from the city. For both these acts the defendant is blamed. In both of them we think the defendant did its duty. Its first obligation was to the sender of the message. It was proper he should be informed of the absence from the city of the party to whom it was sent, as it asked him to come to Chicago that night.
Without elaborating the matter we are of opinion, that when informed that plaintiff was out of the city, and would be for two days,
But it is urged that there was negligence in sending the message to Marshalltown, when the father of plaintiff finally offered this original message for transmission. The office in Marshalltown, by custom or by orders from its superiors, closed at 9 o’clock p. ar. Defendant produces the record of the dates of receiving, filing, and delivering messages, and the evidence of the receiving clerk, which show that this message was filed in the office at 9 o’clock, and therefore too late for transmission that night to Marshalltown. Also the date of its filing on the message itself, with proof that those entries are made truthfully, and in due course of business.
Mr. Josiah Given testified, on the other hand, that he was in the office at 8:15 p. ar., and there received the dispatch directing him to send the original message to plaintiff at Tremont House, Marshall-town. He says this, because he looked at his watch when he left the court-house to go to the telegraph office. He further testifies that, when he received his dispatch from his son, he began to repeat the message from Patterson, writing on a blank which had been given to him, but which he discovered was for a night message. He said he must have a day-message blank, as it was important, and must be sent at once. It was then suggested that the message might be repeated from the one already in the office, and this was determined on. How long a time all this occupied, with the walk from the court-house, the receipt and examination of the message from plaintiff to his father to forward the dispatch to the Tremont House, the change of blanks, and the conversation, no one can tell. As the onus of proving the blame rests on the plaintiff, we cannot say that any unnecessary delay by the office prior to 9 o’clock is established.
It is said that the object might have been accomplished if those in charge of the office at Des Moines had known that the office at Mar-
The question of the remoteness of the injury, and want of any satisfactory measure of damages, has been ably discussed, and is one of much interest; but as we are of opinion that no such negligence is shown as to render defendant liable at all, we forbear to consider, that que, Ton, and render judgment for the defendant