TORTS - DUTY BASED ON CONTRACT-MEASURE OF RECOVERY WHERE TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBER SUES FOR SPECIAL DAMAGES

Authors

Neil McKay, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Plaintiff, a telephone subscriber, alleged that the defendant telephone company negligently severed the telephone connection between the plaintiff's house and defendant's central operating station and negligently failed to give plaintiff notice of the disconnection; that as a result, the plaintiff was delayed in notifying the fire department of an outbreak of fire on his property; and that the property was thereby destroyed. Plaintiff sought to recover damages for the resulting injury to his property. Held, defendant's duty to use due care was an implied term of the contract, and special damages growing out of a breach of such a duty could not be recovered because they were not within the reasonable contemplation of the parties in making the contract. Buskey v. New England Telephone & Telegraph Co., (N. H. 1941) 23 A. (2d) 367.

Recommended Citation

Neil McKay, TORTS - DUTY BASED ON CONTRACT-MEASURE OF RECOVERY WHERE TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBER SUES FOR SPECIAL DAMAGES, 41 Mich. L. Rev. 185 (1942).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol41/iss1/22