Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/154/1/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 00:42:52+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 154 › Primrose v. Western Union Tel. Co.
"THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY"
"Yours of the [fifteenth] seventeenth received; am exceedingly busy; [I have bought] buy all kinds, five hundred thousand pounds; perhaps we have sold half of it; wire when you do anything; second samples immediately, promptly of [purchases] purchase."
Telegraph companies resemble railroad companies and other common carriers in that they are instruments of commerce and in that they exercise a public employment, and are therefore bound to serve all customers alike, without discrimination. They have, doubtless, a duty to the public to receive, to the extent of their capacity, all messages clearly and intelligibly written, and to transmit them upon reasonable terms. But they are not common carriers. Their duties are different, and are performed in different ways, and they are not subject to the same liabilities. Express Co. v. Caldwell, 21 Wall. 264, 88 U. S. 269-270; Telegraph Co. v. Texas, 105 U. S. 460, 105 U. S. 464.
By the settled law of this Court, common carriers of goods or passengers cannot, by any contract with their customers, wholly exempt themselves from liability for damages caused by the negligence of themselves or their servants. Railroad Co. v. Lockwood, 17 Wall. 357; Liverpool Steam Co. v. Phenix Ins. Co., 129 U. S. 397, 129 U. S. 442, and cases cited.
Hart v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 112 U. S. 331, 112 U. S. 343.
In Western Union Tel. Co. v. Hall, 124 U. S. 444, 124 U. S. 453, the effect of such a regulation was presented by the certificate of the circuit court, but was not passed upon by this Court because it was of opinion that, upon the facts of the case, the damages claimed were too uncertain and remote.
had regard, as is evident from the context, and from the reference to Budd v. New York, 143 U. S. 517, to those rules only which require persons or corporations exercising a public employment to serve all alike, without discrimination, and which make them subject to legislative regulation.
narrower limits than were allowed to common carriers in Hart v. Pennsylvania Railroad, already cited, in which five horses were delivered by the plaintiff to a railroad company for transportation under a bill of lading, signed by him and by its agent, which stated that the horses were to be transported upon the terms and conditions thereof, "admitted and accepted by" the plaintiff "as just and reasonable," and that freight was to be paid at a rate specified, on condition that the carrier assumed a liability not exceeding two hundred dollars on each horse, and the circuit court, and this Court on writ of error, held that the contract between the parties could not be controlled by evidence that one of the horses was killed by the negligence of the railroad company, and was a racehorse, worth fifteen thousand dollars. 7 F. 630; 112 U.S. 112 U. S. 331.
Beyond this, under any contract to transmit a message by telegraph, as under any other contract, the damages for a breach must be limited to those which may be fairly considered as arising according to the usual course of things from the breach of the very contract in question, or which both parties must reasonably have understood and contemplated, when making the contract, as likely to result from its breach. This was directly adjudged in Western Union Tel. Co. v. Hall, 124 U. S. 444.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.