Union Constr. Co. v. Western Union Tel. Co.

The action is to recover damages arising from the alleged negligence of the defendant in failing to deliver two telegrams sent to the plaintiff's agents in San Francisco.

The plaintiff was constructing a power plant on the Stanislaus River in Tuolumne County. On October 10, 1906, it made an agreement with the Risdon Iron and Locomotive Works, of San Francisco, by which the plaintiff was given the option to close a contract with said Iron Works, within ninety days from said date, for the construction by said Iron Works of a part of the plant, consisting of an additional pressure line, known as the Mine Line, at a cost of one hundred and forty-three thousand dollars, to be paid by the plaintiff. The right to exercise this option expired at midnight of January 8, 1907. The determination whether or not plaintiff would accept said contract within that time was committed by plaintiff to its engineers, Sanderson & Porter, of New York. Plaintiff’s headquarters for said construction work was at Yallecito, Tuolumne County, where H. F. Jackson, its manager, conducted the work. It also maintained an office in the Kohl building in San Francisco, in charge of H. P. Yeeder. A day or two before…