Houston & T. C. R'y Co. v. Hill

63 Tex. 381, 1885 Tex. LEXIS 92
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 24, 1885
DocketCase No. 2024
StatusPublished
Cited by74 cases

This text of 63 Tex. 381 (Houston & T. C. R'y Co. v. Hill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Houston & T. C. R'y Co. v. Hill, 63 Tex. 381, 1885 Tex. LEXIS 92 (Tex. 1885).

Opinion

Willie, Chief Justice.

The Eevised Statutes provide that suits against a private corporation may be commenced in any county in which the cause of action or any part thereof arose. Art. 1198, subd. 21.

This court has held that a cause of action consists as well of the [384]*384right of the plaintiff as of the injury to that right. Phillio v. Blythe, 12 Tex., 127. The right of the plaintiff in this cause accrued by reason of his contract with the defendant, which was made in Galveston county. The injury arose from a breach of that contract, and as the contract itself was to be in part performed in that county, and was wholly broken, a cause of action arose there, and the suit was properly instituted in Galveston county.

We think the charge of the court clearly and correctly submitted the law of agency as applicable to the contract made by the appellee with Gray, the general passenger agent of the appellant company. If Gray was the general passenger agent of the company, and that particular officer was intrusted with a general supervision of their passenger business, and a part of that business was to make arrangements and special contracts for excursions and like occasions, then a contract of the kind made with such agent would be binding upon the company.

Upon well recognized principles of law no private instructions given by the company to such an agent, and not brought to the knowledge of the party contracting with him, as to a matter within the usual scope of his authority, would affect the right of such party to have the contract carried out and performed. Story on Agency, §§ 73, 106, 133; Sew. M. Co. v. Mo. Pac. R’y Co., 70 Mo., 672.

It is the duty of the party contracting with the agent to inform himself as to whether or not the contract proposed to be made is within the usual or ordinary powers of the agent, and then, if he has no reason to suppose that these powers have not been restricted in the particular instance, he may contract as safely with the agent as with the principal himself.

It appears from the evidence that Gray was held out to the world as having a general authority to do all acts in a particular line of railroad business. In such case the railroad company is bound by his acts in executing the authority, though it may have privately limited that authority, or he may have acted in violation of his duty. Story on Ag., § 73.

The doctrine is now firmly established, and has been long acquiesced in and acted upon, that a railroad company may, by contract, bind itself to transport passengers or property beyond its own line. S. M. Co. v. M. P. R’y Co., supra; Lawson on Cont. of Car., §§ 229, 230; Lindley v. R. & D. R. R., 9 Am. & E. R’y Cases, 31; Cummins v. Dayton & U. R’y Co., id., 36.

The railroad company having power to bind itself by such contracts, and the general passenger agent being the party through [385]*385whom they are usually and ordinarily made, and the contract made by that agent with the appellee being of this character, it must be held binding upon the appellant, and that the latter is liable upon its breach for such damages as are allowed by law for the violation of contracts of this character.

The only remaining question in the case of any importance is as to the damages which the plaintiff below was entitled to recover for a breach of the contract by the company.

There is no allegation in the petition that would bring the case within the rule of damages as laid down in cases of tort, and it must be considered under rules applicable to contract alone.

The contract was to transport passengers from Galveston and other points between Galveston and Dallas to the latter place and return for $5 for each passenger thus transported. It was made with the company’s agent on the 27th of October, 1883; its performance was to commence on the 2d of Hovember thereafter, and the passengers were to be returned by the 12th of the same month. Ho limit seems to have been placed upon the number of passengers to be carried on the excursion. The occasion of the proposed visit to Dallas was a match game or games of base ball, together with horse races and other attractions to take place at the latter place at or about the time the excursionists would arrive. On the 31st of October, 1883, the defendant repudiated and disaffirmed the contract made with Hill by its agent, and notified the former that it would not be respected or carried out.

The damages claimed by the plaintiff were the profits which he would have derived from the contract had it been carried out by the company according to its terms. This is, no doubt, the true measure of damages in the case, as now well settled by the great weight of authority. The principle is that announced in Hadley v. Baxendale, 9 Exch., 341, and adopted by this court in all cases where the question has been brought up for adjudication. Calvit v. McFadden, 13 Tex., 326; Jones v. George, 61 Tex., 345.

It is in effect that these damages are such as are incidental to and caused by the breach, and may reasonably be supposed to have entered into the contemplation of the parties at the time of making the contract. Williams v. Barton, 13 La., 410.

It is useless to announce a proposition so plain as this, that a party making a favorable contract, from the performance of which he would ordinarily and in the usual course of things derive profit, is damaged to the extent of the profits that would thus arise in case of a non-performance of the contract by the party with whom he dealt.

[386]*386Such profits are naturally incident to the contract, and must have been within the contemplation of the contracting parties.

What, then, were the profits which the plaintiff would have derived from a performance of the contract?

He claims in his petition that he had sold two thousand tickets at $2 net advance on the price he was to pay for them, thereby losing a profit of $4,000; and that he could have sold three thousand more at the same advance, making to him an additional profit of $6,000. These allegations, so far as proven by proper evidence, would doubtless form an appropriate basis for a recovery of such damages as would compensate the appellee for his loss by reason of the broken contract.

How far were the allegations sustained by the evidence?

As to the number of tickets actually sold the testimony is very uncertain. Without going into a detail of the evidence — which is very lengthy — there is no proof whatever that more than about four hundred tickets were sold, putting the most favorable construction for the plaintiff upon the evidence. As to about three-fourths of that number great doubt arises whether the tickets were actually sold, or were merely placed with certain parties to be sold. There was proof that two thousand tickets were printed for use in Galveston and placed with agents for sale; but depositing them for sale and selling them are quite different things.

When we pass to a consideration of the number that might have been sold, we find the evidence wrapped in still greater uncertainty.

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Bluebook (online)
63 Tex. 381, 1885 Tex. LEXIS 92, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/houston-t-c-ry-co-v-hill-tex-1885.