John Breuner Co. v. Western Union Telegraph Co.

Defendant appeals from a judgment in favor of plaintiff in an action for money had and received by defendant to and for the .use of plaintiff. The case was tried upon an agreed statement of facts. The main facts thus agreed upon may be narrated.

The plaintiff is a California corporation with its office and principal place of business in the city of San Francisco and John Breuner is and was at all of the times herein referred to the president of the said corporation. The defendant is a corporation engaged in the business of a telegraph company, throughout the United States, and is engaged in interstate commerce. John Breuner was not known to defendant or to any of its employees and in December of 1925 the said Breuner left San Francisco on a trip to New York and on the twenty-ninth day of January, 1926, was in New York, staying at one of the hotels in that city. On this last-stated date an impostor, fraudulently using the name of John Breuner, sent a telegram by Western Union from New York City to the Breuner Com pany of San Francisco, which telegram was received by the said company and which read as follows:

On the same day one W. D. Knights, duly authorized to act on behalf of…