Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Brown

8 N.E. 171, 108 Ind. 538, 1886 Ind. LEXIS 275
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 15, 1886
DocketNo. 12,481
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 8 N.E. 171 (Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Brown, 8 N.E. 171, 108 Ind. 538, 1886 Ind. LEXIS 275 (Ind. 1886).

Opinions

Zollaes, J. —

Appellee was awarded judgment below •.against appellant for the statutory penalty as provided by section 4176, R. S. 1881, being section 1 of an act passed in 1852, for a failure to transmit a message in proper time.

Appellant’s counsel contetid that the act of 1885, Acts 1885, p. 151, by implication, repealed the above section of the act of 1852, and that that repeal took away all right to the penalty, although a penalty in a like amount is provided •by the act of 1885, for a violation of its provisions.

Section 4176, supra, reads as follows:

“ Every electric telegraph company with a line of wires wholly or partly in this State, and engaged in telegraphing for the public, shall, during the usual office hours, receive ‘dispatches, whether from other telegraphic lines or from individuals ; and, on payment or tender of the usual charge, according to the regulations of such company, shall transmit the same with impartiality and good faith, and in the order ■of time in which they are received, under penalty, in case of •failure to transmit, or if postponed out of such order, of one hundred dollars, to be recovered by the person' whose dispatch is neglected or postponed: Provided, however, That arrangements may be made with the publishers of newspapers for the transmission of intelligence of general and public interest out of its order, and that communications for and from ■offices of justice shall take precedence of all others.”

The act of 1885 is as follows:

'uAn act prescribing certain duties of telegraph and telephone companies, prohibiting discrimination between patrons, providing penalties therefor, and declaring an emergency.

[540]*540“Section 1. Be it enacted, * * * * That every telegraph company with a line of wires wholly or partly within t-his-St-ate, and engaged in doing a general telegraphic business, shall during the usual office hours receive dispatches, whether from other telegraph lines or other companies, or individuals, and shall, upon the usual terms, transmit the same with impartiality. and in good faith, and in the order of time in which they are received, and shall in no manner discriminate in rates charged or words or figures charged for or manner or conditions of service between any of its patrons, but shall serve individuals, corporations and other telegraphic companies with impartiality: Provided, however, That arrangements may be made with the publishers of newspapers for transmission of intelligence of general and public interest out of its order, and that communication for and from officers of justice shall take precedence of all others. * * * * *

“ Section 3. Any person or company violating any of the provisions of this act shall be liable to any party aggrieved in a penalty of one hundred dollai’s for each offence, to be recovered in a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction : Provided, Nothing in this act shall be construed to take away or abridge the right of such aggrieved party to appeal to a court of equity to prevent such violations or discriminations by injunction or otherwise.”

In our judgment, this later act operated as a repeal of the above section 4176. The title is comprehensive, and clearly indicates an intention, on the part of the Legislature to revise the whole subject of penalties against telegraph companies for a failure to transmit messages promptly and with impartiality.

The act also covers the whole subject-matter, is different and more comprehensive in its terms than section 4176, and contains provisions not found in that section, and that are not reconcilable therewith.

When such is the case, the later act repeals the former-upon the same subject. State v. Christman, 67 Ind. 328, and [541]*541cases there cited; Lindsay v. Lindsay, 47 Ind. 283; State v. Horsey, 14 Ind. 185; DePauw v. City of New Albany, 22 Ind. 204; Goghill v. State, 37 Ind. 111; Dowdell v. State, 58 Ind. 333; Hayes v. State, 55 Ind. 99; Wright v. Wright, 97 Ind. 444; State, ex rel., v. Board, etc., 104 Ind. 123; Hadley v. Musselman, 104 Ind. 459.

Section 4176 required that messages should be transmitted promptly and with impartiality, whether received from other telegraph companies or from individuals, but the penalty was only for a failure to transmit the message, or the postponing of it out of its order. It also provided that the penalty might be recovered by the person whose dispatch was neglected or postponed.

The act of 1885 provides that messages shall be transmitted promptly and with impartiality whether received from other telegraph lines or other companies, or from individuals, and that the company “ shall in no manner discriminate in rates charged or words or figures charged for or manner or conditions of service between any of its patrons.” It further provides, that any person or company violating any of the provisions of the act shall be liable to any party aggrieved in a penalty of $100 for each offence, etc. The portions above italicized show the difference between the two acts.

In the act of 1852, section 4176, supra, the penalty,-as we have seen, is alone for the failure or delay in the transmission of the message.

In the act of 1885, the penalty may be recovered also for any forbidden discri mi nation. The act of 1852, section 4176, supra, as interpreted by this court, gave a right of action for the penalty to the sender of the dispatch only. Western Union Tel. Co. v. Pendleton, 95 Ind. 12; Western Union Tel. Co. v. Reed, 96 Ind. 195; Western Union Tel. Co. v. Kinney, 106 Ind. 468.

Whether or not the act of 1885, by the use of the term party aggrieved,” extends the right to the penalty to any [542]*542one except the sender of the dispatch, is a question we need, not here decide.

The message which gave rise to this action- was delivered , to the company on the 2d day of December, 1883. The action was commenced in December, 1884, and tried in July, 1885. It will thus be seen, that the action is to enforce a penalty incurred, if at all, under the above section 4176, and that the action was pending when the act of 1885 took effect on the 8th day of April, 1885.

There is no vested right in a penalty. The- general ruléis, that an action can not be maintained to recover a penalty after the act giving it is repealed, unless it be saved by the repealing act. ' Thompson v. Bassett, 5 Ind. 535. There-is no such saving clause in the act of 1885. It does not follow, however, that appellee’s right of action for the penalty was lost with the repeal of section 4176. In 1877, an act was passed, the first section of which, amongst other things, provided as follows:

“And the repeal of any statute shall not have the effect to> release or extinguish any penalty, forfeiture, or liability incurred under such statute, unless the repealing act shall so expressly provide; and such statute shall be treated as still remaining in force for the purpose of sustaining any proper action, or prosecution for the enforcement of such penalty, forfeiture, or liability.” R. S. 1881, section 248.

This statute clearly applies in the case before us.

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Bluebook (online)
8 N.E. 171, 108 Ind. 538, 1886 Ind. LEXIS 275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/western-union-telegraph-co-v-brown-ind-1886.