Case ID: ill-app_193/html/0416-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Presiding Justice Thompson", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

O. H. Paddock Lumber Company, Appellee, v. Western Union Telegraph Company, Appellant.
    (Not to be reported in full.)
    Appeal from the City Court of Pana; the Hon. J. H. Fornoff, Judge, presiding.
    Heard in this court at the October term, 1914. Affirmed. Rehearing denied April 7, 1915.
    Opinion filed December 11, 1914.
    Statement of the Case.
    Action in case by the O. H. Paddock Lumber Company against the Western Union Telegraph Company to recover damages because of a mistake in the transmission of a telegram, sent to the plaintiff by the Louisville Cement Company, quoting the price on 3000 barrels of cement. On the trial the. appellant did not offer any evidence and the court directed a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $300, on which judgment was rendered and the defendant appeals.
    The cement company in reply to a letter, sent a telegram to the plaintiff quoting a price of $1.64 per barrel for cement, while the telegram as delivered read $1.54. The plaintiff, without notice of the mistake and relying on the telegram, wired its acceptance of the offer and resold the cement to a customer at $1.72 per barrel. The cement company refused to furnish the cement at $1.54, and the plaintiff in order to protect its contract with its customer was compelled to pay $1.64 per barrel for the cement.
    Abstract of the Decision.
    Telegraphs and telephones, § 32
      
      —tolien lost profits recoverable for mistake in telegram quoting' prices. Where a telegram was changed in transmission so as to quote a lower price for cement than that stated in the message as filed, and the recipient in reliance thereon contracted to resell the cement, he may recover from the telegraph company the profits lost by his being compelled, in order to fulfil his contract, to pay for cement the figure stated in the telegram as filed;
    James A. Connolly and James T. Kelly, for appellant.
    Mc Quigg & Dowell, for appellee.
    
      
      See Illinois Notes Digest, Vols. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, samo topic and section number.
    
   Mr. Presiding Justice Thompson

delivered the opinion of the court.