22 Fla. 637 | Fla. | 1886
Lead Opinion
The Chiee-Justice delivered the opiniou of the court:
Suit was brought by Hyer Bros, in the Circuit Court of Escambia county against the "Western Union Telegraph Company for damages for non-delivery of a cablegram sent to them at Pensacola by their correspondent and agent at Barbadoes.
The proof showed that the plaintiffs were merchants and ship brokers at Pensacola, and that on the 12th day of September, 1888, they received a cablegram from their correspondent and agent at Barbadoes, as follows: “ Prelate, Tellespont, lambent, speculum, divan, extol,pulpit, rabidy, Greenock, preferred, sluggard, excluded, stevedore,‘scam/ ‘ slam/ ” which being translated meant: “ We grant you refusal for 24 hours. Tellespont, 556 6-100 reg., half hewn, balance deals, £6.15, full freight on beam fillings. U. K., Greenock preferred, £20 gratuity, stevedore excluded. Commissions in thirds.” Hyer Bros, answered the cablegram as follows: “ To Laurie,-Barbadoes. Wagon, extant, knight, sluggard, polygon,” which being translated
The agent at Barbadoes answered this dispatch and the answer was received at the office of the Western Union Telegraph Co., in Pensacola, Sept. 14. It contained but one word, “ Punctual.” By the cipher code used by Hyer Bros., and their correspondent it meant: “ We have closed the vessel as per your telegram.” It was never delivered to Hyer Bros. The offer of II. B. for the charter of the vessel was based on an offer made to them by A. M. McMillan, of Pensacola.
Hot receiving an answer to their dispatch and thinking their offer was not accepted they told McMillan that the offer was declined and he secured another vessel. On October 2d the vessel arrived at Pensacola, bringing a letter from their agent at Barbadoes containing a copy of the telegram, which had been sent as aforesaid to II. B., but not delivered; also, a charter party which their agent at Barbadoes had signed for them in accordance with their offer. They had to re-charter the vessel at a loss.
The court instructed the jury to find their verdict as a special verdict upon which, if in favor of the plaintiff, it should enter judgment for nominal damages or for the amount of damages as found by the jury as'it might thereafter be advised. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff's for $618.90, and the said court, after being advised, entered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendant lor said sum.
The defendant alleges here as error that the court erred in rendering judgment for other than nominal damages.
This question has never before been presented for adjudication in this State.
The courts in Hew York, Minnesota, Maryland, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine, following the case
All the eases above referred to rely upon the authority of this case of Hadley vs. Baxendale, and are decided upon the theory that the principles of law regulating the conduct of common carriers applies equally to the transmission of messages by the electric telegraph system. The business of one is to transport from one locality' to another some tangible object of weight and dimension. Experience does not suggest in such a transaction any other liability than compensation for its value if lost or destroyed in the transportation, or such damages for its delay as the object itself might suggest. The business of the other is the transmission from one to another and from one locality to another, of information or intelligence, nothing in itself, but as the basis and ground work that is to influence the conduct of others, is in this respect of the very first importance. One is limited to the transportation of tangible things, the other to the transmission of the intangible. There is no similarity in the services to be performed, in the nature of the
The decision in Hadley vs. Baxendale was proper and suited to the facts before the court, but an attempt to extend it to such cases as this would be productive of great injustice. The telegraphic invention has made the system the means of communication between all civilized countries on the globe for a large part of the transactions and communications that prior to its invention were conducted by writing or by special messenger. Ho man can enumerate the vast number of subjects of treaty and intercourse that the complicated relations of maukind require its agency to accomplish. It can safely be said, however, that the larger part of all messages sent are of a commercial or business nature which suggest value; the requirements of friendship or pleasure can await other means of less celerity and less expense. If this be true, why should the law assume that as a rule all messages sent over it are unimportant, and that an important one is an exception, of which the operator is to be informed ? Whatever may be the rules of this particular defendant company, if they have any, there are none set forth in the record; whether, therefore, its rules :are reasonable or whether it can limit its liability by proper rules when shown to have been known to its patron, is in no sense involved in this opinion.
The common carrier charges different rates of freight for different articles according to their bulk and value and their respective risks of transportation, and provides different methods for the transportation of each. It is not shown here that the defendant company had any scale of prices which were higher or lower as the importance of the dispatch was great or small. It cannot-be said, then, that
The nearest approach to any similar enterprise is the system of carrying letters by mail, but as this has been taken m charge and performed by the United States Government since its inception, and its acts or omissions cannot be made-
The Supreme Court of Alabama, in the case of Daughtry vs. American Union Telegraph Company, at its December term, 1883, reported in the Alabama Law. Journal, May 1884, 75 Ala., 168, and the Supreme Court of California, in the case of Hart vs. Western Union Telegraph Co., April term, 1885, 66 Cal., 579, have laid down a doctrine more harmonious with justice, and more applicable to the peculiar characteristics belonging to the system of telegraphy. They hold that a telegraph company is liable for damage resulting naturally, and in the usual course of business, from its failure tp send or deliver a dispatch correctly and promptly without requiring the.sender to disclose its importance to the company or its agent.
It is of no consequence whether the dispatch is in plain
The judgment of the Circuit Court is affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
delivered the following dissenting opinion:
I am unable to agree with the conclusion reached by the other members of the court in this case. The question is one of the measure of damages, not of the right of recovery. The rule advanced in Hadley et al. vs. Baxendale, 26 E. L. & E., 398, is that the damages should be such as may fairly and substantially be considered as arising naturally, i. e., according to the natural course of things, from such breach of contract itself, or such as may reasonably be supposed to have been in the contemplation of both parties, at the time they made the contract, as the probable result of it. The defendant’s clerk was informed that the mill was stopped and that the plaintiffs desired the broken shaft to be sent immediately, but was not informed of the special purpose for which the broken shaft was to be forwarded, or rather also the special circumstances under which it was being sent, viz;: that it was essential to the running of the mill to have a new shaft. It was held by the Exchequer that damages for the loss of profits incurred by the stoppage of the mill through defendant’s delay did not arise in the natural course of things from the breach of contract in not delivering the pieces of the broken shaft in a reasonable time, under the communications made to defendant’s clerk. It is contended that this rule in Hadley vs. Baxendale is not applicable to a case like the one now before us; and it is said that the business of a common carrier is to transport from one locality to another some' tangible object of weight and dimension; that compensation for its value,
The rule advanced by the- other justices of this court bases’the measure Of damages, in ease of breach, not upon