137 N.C. 497 | N.C. | 1905
We gather from the record these facts: The plaintiff and his brother resided in North Carolina and their father S. M. Hancock at New Church, Va. The family burial ground is Goodwill Cemetery in Maryland, eight or ten miles from the father’s home. Its nearest depot is Pocomoke City, Maryland, four and a half miles away. New Church and Pocomoke City are about eleven or twelve miles distant. On Saturday, July 11, 1903, the plaintiff was at Johns Hopkins Hospital, with his brother, Thomas, .and his wife. Thomas had gone there for an operation, under which he died. At the defendant’s office in the hospital, about 6 P. M. Saturday, the plaintiff filed a telegram as follows:
*499 “S. M. HANCOCK, New Church:
“Thomas dead. Will arrive at Pocomoke 3 A. M.
“PI. S. HANCOCK."
Tbis telegram was not delivered until Monday, 13tb. There being no earlier train, the plaintiff, with his brother’s body and the widow, arrived at Pocomoke City Monday morning a half hour late, at 4 o’clock. A storm prevailed which prevented the plaintiff leaving the train until 6:30 A. M. There was no one to meet him and no preparation had been made for the burial. The plaintiff again telegraphed by the Postal Company to his father, who arrived between 9 and 10 A. M. Preparations were made and the interment took place about 5 P. M.
1. The contract in this case was made in Maryland, and the contracting parties are presumed in law to have had in contemplation only such damages arising from the breach of it as could be awarded under the law of Maryland at the date of the telegram. In this case the sender was in Maryland at the time he filed his telegram. The sendee was in Virginia. The defendant, we judge by depositions in the record, was under the belief that the law of Virginia in some way affects this contract. The law of Virginia has no relation to it.
If a telegraphic message is delivered to the company in one State to be transmitted by it to a place in another State, the validity and interpretation of the contract, as well as the rule measuring the damages arising upon a breach and the company’s liability therefor, are to be determined by the laws of the former State where the contract originated. Bryan v. Tel. Co., 133 N. C., 607, citing Reed v. Tel. Co., 58 Am. St. Rep. (Mo.), 609. If under the law of Maryland, as interpreted and expounded by its highest court, damages
2. The Judge among other things charged the jury that “upon the question of damages the message .upon its face disclosing its urgency and relating to death, the defendant had notice that a failure to deliver might reasonably cause mental anguish to the sender, and in such case the damages for mental anguish are such damages as the jury shall find the plaintiff has suffered from disappointment and regret occasioned by the fault or neglect of the company in its failure to notify the sendee, in order that preparations and .arrangements might be made for the reception and interment of the body.” The Court erred in using the words “disappointment and regret.” There is a very material difference between the significance of those words and that keen and poignant mental suffering signified by the words “mental anguish.”
We do not find anywhere that damages are allowed for “disappointment and regret.” .The lexicographers define anguish to be “intense pain of body or mind.” It is derived from the Latin word anguis, .a snake, referring to the writhing or twisting of the animal body when in great pain. Stormouth’s Diet. Mr. Justice Douglas, speaking for the Court, said: “We use the word 'anguish’ as indicating a high degree of mental suffering, without which the plaintiff could not recover substantial damages. Mere disappointment would not amount to mental anguish or entitle the plaintiff to more than nominal damages.” Hunter’s case, 135 N. C., 459. The addition of the word “regret” by his Honor does not help the matter. Regret indicates no greater degree of mental suffering than does disappointment. Roth are of very frequent occurrence in the lives of most men, and with some scarcely disturb their mental poise. In this connection we desire to supplement what was said by Judge Douglas in Hunter’s case, as to what particular mental anguish is to be considered by the jury in awarding damages. Jurors may possibly confound the mental anguish, naturally arising from the loss of a near relative, with that which grows out of the defendant’s negligence. The jury have no right to consider anything except the latter in awarding damages.
3. Tbe Judge charged tbe jury that they might consider tbe failure of tbe father to arrange for tbe interment of tbe deceased, if they should find from the evidence that such arrangements would naturally be presumed to have been made by tbe sendee, if tbe telegram bad been delivered prior to tbe arrival of tbe train on Monday. It is plain that tbe plaintiff has no cause for complaint that bis father did not meet tbe 3 A. M. train Sunday, for tbe plaintiff did not arrive until Monday at 4 A. M. Tbe only contention tbe plaintiff makes is that if the telegram had been delivered with reasonable promptness, bis father would have met him promptly on Monday morning and would have bad all arrangements made for tbe interment, so that it would not have been delayed from about 10 A. M. until 5 P. M. Monday, in consequence of which delay tbe plaintiff avers be suffered great mental anguish, and claims damages on that account. Tbe plaintiff must therefore prove that bis father could and would have met him promptly on Monday morning on arrival of the train at 4 o’clock, and that he could and would have made on Sunday, or prior to the plaintiff’s arrival, all necessary arrangements for tbe prompt interment of bis brother’s body on Monday morning and avoided tbe delay in tbe obsequies from 10 A. M. until 5 P. M., thereby saving tbe plaintiff from tbe pangs of mental anguish which be avers be endured.
Tbe law does not presume that tbe father could have done
As there is to be ,a new trial, it is unnecessary to consider the defendant’s further exceptions. They relate to alleged errors that may not again occur.
New Trial.