Bank of Cal. v. W. Union Tel. Co.

All carriers of messages are regulated by the Code. (See Civil Code, secs. 1017, 2162, 2207, 2209; Penal Code, secs. 474, 619-621, 638-641, 850, 851.)

By these sections, “ a carrier of messages for reward must use great care and diligence in the transmission and delivery of messages ”; the order in which they are to be delivered is prescribed, and penalties attached for breach of duty.

The greatest secrecy is enforced under severe penalties, and everything is done to keep the contents of messages and the business transacted by telegraph from being disclosed or discovered. (See Scott & Jarnagin on Law of Tel. secs. 137,138.)

The defendant was therefore bound to keep secret the business transacted over its wires between the two banks. Without a knowledge of that business, and of the mode of conducting it, no one could, through the telegraph, have perpetrated the fraud. Mr. Washburn, “ the, sole agent of the Western Union Telegraph Company at Colusa, Colusa County, California, for the receipt and transmission of dispatches over its telegraph wires,” should not have permitted Mr. Crowell to have had access to the books, papers, and business of his agency. However innocent Mr.…