Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Commercial Pacific Cable Co.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of plaintiff in an action to have it established that certain charges and tolls exacted by the defendant from the plaintiff for the transmission of its messages over the Pacific Cable to Oriental points are discriminatory and excessive, and to have the defendant enjoined from the imposition and exaction of such charges and tolls, and to recover damages for injuries alleged .to have been sustained by the plaintiff through such demand and exaction. The main facts of the case are not the subject of much controversy though the conclusions drawn from them by the respective parties to the action are widely divergent. The defendant, Commercial Pacific Cable Company, is the owner of the Pacific Ocean cable having its American terminus at San Francisco and extending by way of Hawaii to the principal ports in China, Japan, and the Philippine Islands. This cable was constructed in 1902 and was put into operation in the following year. The American business transmitted over it westward originates in all parts of the United States where there are telegraph offices and is transferred to the cable wires at San Francisco. The two principal suppliers of…