392.170. Liability for negligence in transmitting and delivering messages — not to disclose contents — penalty.
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/mo/chapter-392/392-170A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
392.170. Liability for negligence in transmitting and delivering messages — not to disclose contents — penalty. — Every telephone or telegraph company now organized under the laws of this state, and every telephone or telegraph company now organized, or which may hereafter be organized under the laws of any other state or territory, and doing business in this state, shall be liable for special damages occasioned by the failure or negligence of their operators or servants in receiving, copying, transmitting or delivering dispatches; and for the disclosure of any of the contents of any private dispatches to any person other than to him to whom it was addressed, or to his agent, they shall be liable to the sender of the dispatch, and to the person to whom it was addressed, in the sum of fifty dollars to each, recoverable by any action before a magistrate, and for all special damages in addition thereto.
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(RSMo 1939 § 5334)
Prior revisions: 1929 § 4929; 1919 § 10140; 1909 § 3334
(1957)This section does not dispense with the element of proximate cause, but telephone company is liable for neglect or refusal to transmit notice of fire to fire department within reasonable time after it has notice thereof, and under pleadings question of proximate cause was jury question. Jennings v. Southwestern Bell Tel. Co. (Mo.), 307 S.W.2d 464.