Horace Harmon Lurton

“ Such a statute was plainly a regulation of interstate commerce, and exhibited in a conspicuous degree the evils of such interference by a state, and the necessity of one uniform plan of regulation. The statute of Michigan has no such objectionable qualities. It imposes no additional duty. It gives sanction only to an inherent duty. It declares that in the performance of a service public in its nature, that it is a policy of the state that there shall be no contract against negligence. The prohibition of the statute, therefore, entails no burden. ”

“ The only question for decision is whether a statute of the state of Virginia which imposes a penalty for the failure to transmit a despatch received at an office of the company in the state, for transmission to a person in another state, is a valid exercise of the power of the state, the delay occurring in the state.
That companies engaged in the telegraph business, whose lines extend from one state to another, are engaged in interstate commerce, and that messages passing from one state to another constitute such commerce, is indisputable. ”

“ The defendant demurred to the evidence. This was overruled because the court was of opinion that from the facts and circumstances the jury might find that the negligence in transmission occurred in the sending office at Richmond. ”