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We learn from one of our exchanges that Judge Logan lately rendered a decision of some interest in the Chancery Court, at Louisville, Ky, in a telegraphic suit The suit was entered by A E Camp against the Western Union Telegraph Line, to recover damages for loss resulting from erroneous transmission of a message Plaintiff ordered a certain amount of whisky by telegraph, at the rate of fifteen cents The wires delivered the message with sixteen substituted for the correct figure The order was filled, but plaintiff refused payment at the increased price, and came upon the company for damages Judge Logan decided for defendants, on the grounds that the failure to deliver the message correctly was not alleged to be the result of negligence, but the result of a mistake, to which, from the very nature of telegraphic operations, communications are liable ; and that the message in this case was sent subject to the express condition that defendants would not be liable for mistakes arising from any cause, unless the message was repeated by being sent back, in which case the mistake would not have occurred The learned Judge moreover declared that the points of difference between the nature of telegraphic companies and the nature of common carriers are so numerous and so obvious, as to render the unqualified application of the law of common carriers to telegraph companies delusive and dangerous With all proper deference to the judgment of the erudite judge, we beg leave to differ from him in the main positions he has assumed Our mind tells us that neglect may arise from carelessness or inattention; and we humbly opine that the mistake of sending the word sixteen over telegraphic wires instead of t'ie word fifteen, or rendering one word for the other at the opposite terminus, clearly indicates a most flagrant lack of comprehension or care on the part of the operators, or else an inability to properly operate the telegraphic instrument, in all of which cases we believe the company to be, by law and equity, liable for any damage that accrues from such inexcusable blunders The fact that the message was sent subject to the condition that the company would not be liable, unless an additional sum was paid for its return and repeated transmission, does not, in our opinion, remove the liability of the company for such damages, any more than the repeated declarations of railway and steamboat companies, " all baggage at the risk of the owners," frees them from their legally acknowledged responsibility for its safety In regard to the alleged difference between the nature of the two chartered companies, in respect to the messages to be transmitted by the one, and the baggage and passengers by the other, our theory is simply this:In the (k former case, the telegraphic operator receives a written message to transmit, either directly CTfrom the author or from an agent through whom he can communicate with the author, n the event of its illegibility If he and the receiver at the station to which it is sent unlerstand their business, and properly observe their duty, it is utterly impossible for such a blundering error as the substitution of one word for another to occur After the delivery of a message at the office it is out of the sight and power of any controlling influence of the one who sends it The operations of the telegraph are entirely free from the liabilities to the many unf orseen and unavoidable accidents that frequently happen in railway conveyance, and are so exclusively under the control of the employes of the company, that we really think the just principle which binds the common carrier for the safety of his charge, should in like manner apply to telegraphic companies, and make them equally liable for damages arising from their blunders As there is no method of ensuring correctness but by reading the proofs of the messages sent, which is now done by telegraphing back, it would be an improvement to have a registering arrangement operating in connection with the key which transmits the message This would enable the, message to be read as transmitted by one operation, and correct mistakes (if any) on the spot
