Western Union Telegraph Company v. Commercial Milling Company’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 federal appellate · 5 district · 76 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 133 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The only question for decision, is whether a statute of the state of Virginia which imposes a penalty for the failure to transmit a dispatch received at an office of the company in the state for transmission to a person in another state is a valid exercise of the power of the state, the delay occuring in the state. That companies engaged in the telegraph business, whose lines extend from one state to another, are engaged in interstate commerce, and that messages passing from one state to another constitute such commerce, is indisputable. Such companies and such messages come, therefore, under the regulating power of Congress. It follows, then, that if this statute as applied in the state court is to be construed as a regulation of commerce between the states, it is in .excess of the power of the state. ... No attempt is here made to enforce the provisions of the state statute beyond the limits of the state, and no other state could, by legislative enactment, affect in any degree the duty of the company in relation to the delivery of messages within the limits of the state of Georgia. No confusion, therefore, could' be expected in carrying out within the limits of that state the provisions of the statute. It is true it provides a penalty for a violation of its terms and permits a recovery of the amount thereof irrespective of the question whether any actual damages have been sustained by the individual who brings the suit; but that is only a matter in aid of the performance o”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Dickerson v. Western Union Telegraph Co.

2. ““Sec. 1. The people of the State of Michigan enact that it shall be the duty of all telegraph companies incorporated either within or without this State, doing business within this State, to receive dispatches from and for other telegraph companies’ lines and from and for any individual, and on payment of the usual charges for individuals for transmitting dispatches, as estalibshed by the rules and regulations of such telegraph company, to transmit the same with impartiality and good faith. Such telegraph companies shall be liable for any mistakes, errors, or delays in the transmission or delivery or for the non-delivery of any repeated or non-repeated message, in damages to the amount which such person or persons may sustain by reason of the mistakes, errors, or delays in the transmission or delivery, due to the negligence of such company, or for the non-delivery of any such dispatch, due to the negligence of such telegraph company or its agents, to be recovered with the costs of suit by the person or persons sustaining such damage.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Western Union Telegraph Co. v. White

3. “The telegraph company in the case at bar surely owed the obligation to the milling company to not only transmit the message, but to deliver it. For the failure of the latter it sought to limit its responsibility, to make the measure of its default not the full and natural consequence of the breach of its obligation, but the mere price of the service, relieving itself, to some extent, even from the performance of its duty. A duty, we may (235) say, if performed or omitted, may have consequence beyond the damage in the particular instance. This the statute of the State, expressing the policy of the State, declares shall not be. For the reasons stated we think that this may be done, and that it is not an illegal interference with interstate commerce.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. J. M. Pace Mule Co. v. Seaboard Air Line Railway Co.