Case ID: ala_156/html/0333-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      ANDERSON, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Collins.
    
      Action for Damages for Failure to Deliver Telegram.
    
    
      Telegraphs and Telephones; Failure to Deliver; Excessive Damages. — The inconvenience and annoyance of a hack ride oyer a distance of twenty miles caused hy a failure to deliver a telegram is too highly compensated hy an award of §S45 damages.
    Appeal from Birmingham City Court.
    Heard before Hon. Charles A. Senn.
    Action hy Milton H. Collins against the Western Union Telegraph Company, for failure to deliver telegram. Judgment for plaintiff in the sum $350, and defendant appeals.
    Reversed and remanded.
    Campbell & Johnson, for appellant.
    Plaintiff could not ¡recaver for mental anguish. — Blount’s Case, 126 Ala. 105; Westmoreland’s Case, 44 S'outh. 382. The damages sought here are too remote. — Foster’s Case, 23 South. 581; Quick v. L. & N., 125 Ala. 553. On the above authorities the complainant was not entitled to recover any sum greater than his expenditure for hack hire.
    Bowman, Harsh & Beddow, for appellee.
    Loss to estate was shown, and hence recovery may be had for mental anguish. — E. T. V. & C. R. R. Co. v.' Lockhardt, 79 Ala. 317; L. & N. v. Dancey, 97 Ala. 30; 73 Tex. 422; 28 L. R. A. 72; 54 Wis. 432. The court will indulge all reasonable presumptions in support of the trial court’s action in refusing to grant a new trial. — Cobb. v. Malone, 92 Ala. 630; McLendon v. McKissack, 38 South. 1020.
   ANDERSON, J.

The trial court, by charge 6, given at the request of the defendant, confined the plaintiff’s recoverable damages to the cost of hack hire and interest, $4.50, and such other damages as the jury should assess for “any inconvenience or annoyance the plaintiff had, if any, in going by hack from Attalla to Albert-ville.” Deducting for the cost of the hack, the jury evidently awarded the plaintiff $345 for the inconvenience and annoyance of the hack ride, a distance of 20 miles, and which we think was excessive. The trial court erred in not granting the motion for a new trial.

Reversed and remanded.

All the Justices concur.