Riley v. Western Union Telegraph Co.

This is an action brought to recover damages for injuries sustained September 13th, 1892, by a sailing yacht, resulting, as is alleged, from the negligence and carelessness of the defendant, the Western Union Telegraph Company, a corporation organized under the general statutes of New York, in not' promptly delivering a message written upon one of the defendant’s regular message forms and intrusted by the plaintiff to it for transmission to James R. Mack, at Bath Beach, Long Island, as follows: “ Ask Garry take boat to clubhouse, going to storm. Riley.” The defendant while admitting that it received the message at one of its offices, 233 Grand street, in the city of New York, and that plaintiff paid the sum demanded for the service, twenty-five cents, denies all negligence, carelessness and want, of, skill in the transmission of the message, and by way of special defense and in mitigation of damages alleges that said money was received by it under the terms of a special contract between plaintiff and defendant whereby plaintiff agreed that defendant should not be liable for mistakes or delays in the transmission or delivery or for non-delivery of any unrepeated message, beyond the amount received for sending the same, and further alleges that plaintiff’s said message was an unrepeated message, and was delivered to defendant to be transmitted as such, and was paid for as such unrepeated message. Defendant also alleges that all delay which may have occurred was due to atmospheric disturbances and causes beyond human control, and not from any negligence or unskillfulness on its part. The plaintiff offered evidence tending to prove that plaintiff delivered the message in question at one of the defendant’s offices at 233 Grand street in the city of New York at 12.15 o’clock in the afternoon of September 13, 1892, that it was written upon one of defendant’s regular message blanks, and that the plaintiff at the time knew of the conditions upon the face and back of the blank; that it was delivered by the

On the part of the defendant the testimony showed that the message was sent from the Grand street office in the usual course of business, and was received at the main office of the defendant, 195 Broadway, Uew York city, before 1 o’clock, at which time the operator “ called ” the Bath Beach office, but could not “ raise ” it, and she made a note to this effect on the back of the message. Similar attempts were made, with like result, to communicate with the Bath Beach office at 1.15, 1.25, 1.30, 1.40, 1.50, 2 and 2.10 P. M., all of which were noted on the back of the message.

The message was sent at 2:10 p. M., was received at Bath Beach at 2:22 o’clock and was sent out for delivery in the usual course of business about 2:40 p. iff. It further appeared that the telegraph wire between Uew York city and Bath Beach was “ grounded ” or “ dead ” from 12 o’clock noon to 2:22 p. M. of that day. It was delivered, at the “Grange,” where it was addressed at 2:45 P. ir. as shown by plaintiff’s witnesses. The jury found for plaintiff in the sum of two hundred and thirty-four dollars and fifty cents ($234.50).

Defendant moved for a new trial, which was denied, and judgment was entered for the amount of the verdict and costs aggregating three hundred and sixty dollars and eighty-seven cents ($360.87). Defendant appeals from both the order denying the motion for a new trial and from the judgment. The statement of the terms by the defendant upon which messages would be transmitted over its lines and the knowledge and acceptance of these terms by the plaintiff constitutes a valid contract as to the terms upon which the message in question was sent. Young v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 65 N., Y. 163 , 165. This message was not repeated and one of the terms of this contract was that the defendant would not be liable for mistakes or delays in the transmission or delivery or for non-delivery of any unrepeated message beyond the amount received for sending the same, * * * nor in any case for delays arising from unavoidable interruption -in the working of its lines or for errors in cipher or obscure messages. These condi

Unless then there is some evidence of willful misconduct or gross negligence on the part of the defendant, the plaintiff’s damages even if the defendant is negligent, are limited to the amount paid for sending messages. For all the authorities declare in case where no contract has been made and where the message is sent unconditionally, that mere delay unexplained is prima facie evi dence of negligence, but not so in view of the terms of the contract, in order to entitle plaintiff to recover any greater sum than provided for by the contract. Allen, J., in Baldwin v. The U. S. Telegraph Co., 45 N. Y., pages 751, 752, says: “But an error in transcribing the direction, and a consequent misdelivery, axe prima facie evidence of neglect and want of care in the operator, and cast the burden upon the company of explaining the erro.r and showing that it occurred without fault. This is upon the supposition that the message is received for transmission unconditionally. For the purpose of this appeal, it is assumed, but not decided, that this message was not subject to the terms and conditions ordinarily ' attached to the receipt of messages for transmission, but that the defendant is subject to all the liability which legally results from a receipt of a message and a naked agreement to transmit the same to its destination- for a reasonable compensation paid thereof. If the terms and conditions, ordinarily imposed were a part of the contract, the question would arise whether the defendant would not be protected against liability for the “ error and delay ’’ in the delivery of the dispatch. See Mac Andrew v. Electric Tel. Co., 17 C. B., 3 ; Ellis v. American Tel. Co., 13 Allen, 226 . It is conceded that the day on which the message was sent, was a stormy one, which began at 11:30 o’clock A. M. and increased in violence toward the night. It appears by the testimony that besides this, the operator in the general office in New York city, made repeated efforts to transmit, said message between one and 2:20 P. M., and that the wire was “ grounded ” or “ dead ” and thus the defendant was unable to send any message until 2.20 o’clock p. M., when for the first time secured communication.

That the operator at Bath Beach at about 12:45 o’clock p. M. discovered his wire connecting with New York City was in trouble or “grounded,” or “dead,” and he prevented from transmitting any messages over the same. He endeavored to transmit messages between that time (12:45 P. M.) and 2:20 o’clock P. M.,

The authorities recognize a distinction in the degree of negligence by the degree of care required. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, vol 1, page 225, as follows: “ Thus in the first class, the bailee is req uired to exercise only slight care and is responsible of course only for gross negligence. In the second, he is required to exercise “ great care and is responsible even for slight neglect.” In the third, he is required to exercise “ordinary care and is responsible for ordinary neglect.” Gross negligence is therefore the want of slight care.

We have examined the testimony carefully and cannot find any evidence showing a want of slight care and when such arises, it then becomes a question of law for the court, and it is error for the court to submit the case to the jury. They cannot be permitted to speculate or conjecture, nor to determine the question by bias, prejudice or passion. There must be some foundation as well as substance in the evidence upon which they can act.

The defendant did all that could be done under the circumstances, and the delay was not unreasonable. It was undoubtedly for the purposes of guarding against such occurences as the present that the contract contained in the blank message was made. Pearsall v. W. U. Tel. Co., 124 N. Y., 266 , 267 and 269 ; 35 St. Rep., 307 ; Kiley v. Western Union Tel. Co., 109 N. Y., 235 and 236; 14 St. Rep., 816 . Allen, J., at page 236, says: “It is not the case of a message delivered to the operator, and sent by him from his office. This certainly would be gross negligence.” Daly, Ch. J., in Sprague v. Western Union Tel. Co., 6 Daly, at page 203 (affirmed in 67 N. Y., page 590 on opinion below), says: “ The expenses to which the plaintiff was necessarily put through their neglect is not embraced by any of the stipulations limiting their damages to the amount received for sending the message. “ This was not a mistake or delay in the transmission or delivery, or a non-delivery, but an entire breach of the contract by a neglect to send the message at all, and which rendered them liable for such damages as were the direct natural and proximate consequences of their total neglect to do what they had to do. De Rutte v. The N. Y. Telegraph Co., 1 Daly, 547 . Here, in our judgment, is a clear and decisive explanation of what is wilful misconduct or gross negligence. The cases cited by the respondents have been carefully examined, and we find that they do not apply. They are either, where the contract was not as bread as the one at bar, or, in other words, not containing the same limitations, or was as in Milliken v. Western Union Tel. Co., 110 N. Y., 403 ; 18 St. Rep., 328 , on a new contract without limitation made with the person to whom the message was to be sent or delivered. There being no evidence of willful misconduct or gross negligence, the trial justice erred in not granting the defendant’s requests. That the court direct a verdict for the plaintiff not to exceed

For these reasons, judgment should be reversed, and a new trial granted, with costs to the appellant to abide the event

Newburger, J., concurs.