124 Ga. 478 | Ga. | 1905
The telegram which has given rise to this controversy was sent by the Lighterage Company to the captain of the schooner “Hilda.” The Lighterage Company, in so sending the telegram, acted as the agent of the Tow-Boat Companjq the latter being an undisclosed principal. There is no question about the right of an undisclosed principal to sue a telegraph company for negligence in the delivery of telegrams. “The governing principle is that an undisclosed principal, as the ultimate party in interest, is entitled, .against third persons, to all advantages and benefits of such acts and contracts of his agent, and consequently that he may sue in his own name on such contracts. Story, Ag. §418.” Dodd Grocery
It was said that the damages were too remote. In the case of Western Union Tel. Co. v. Patman, 73 Ga. 285, tbe court held that, the commissions a ship broker would have made by securing a vessel were proper damages for the non-delivery of a telegram. Mr. Chief Justice Jackson said: “The damages arc said to be too remote. Not so. They were precisely what the plaintiff'would have made by his contract with Nisbet if the cablegram had reached him at. 11.10 A. M.” And in the case of Walden v. Western Union Tel. Co., 105 Ga. 275, where a shipment of guano was ordered by wire, and it appeared that the intending purchaser had contracted with other' parties for the salé of such guano, the non-delivery of his telegram, which prevented the shipment to him of the guano, gave rise to an action for damages, in which the measure was the amount he would have earned had he been able to carry out his contract for the sale' of the guano. <
Counsel for the defendant relies upon the eases of Georgia Rail
Judgment reversed.