56-469 - Receipt and transmission of dispatches; venue.
§ 56-469. Receipt and transmission of dispatches; venue.
It shall be the duty of every telegraph company in this Commonwealth toreceive dispatches and messages from and for other telegraph companies orlines doing the business of receiving and transmitting messages forcompensation, and from and for any person. Such companies shall, upon thepayment of the established charges, if demanded, transmit such dispatches andmessages faithfully and impartially, and as promptly as practicable, and inthe order of delivery to such company. For every failure to transmit adispatch or message faithfully and impartially, and for every failure totransmit or deliver a dispatch or message as promptly as practicable, or inthe order of its delivery to the company, the company shall forfeit the sumof fifty dollars to the person sending or wishing to send such dispatch ormessage, or to the person to whom such dispatch is addressed, or such messageis to be sent; provided, that the recovery of one party entitled theretoshall be a bar to the recovery of the other party. The provisions of thissection shall not prevent any such company from giving preference todispatches or messages on official business from or to officers of the UnitedStates or the Commonwealth of Virginia, or from making arrangements withproprietors or publishers of newspapers for the transmission to them forpublication of intelligence of general and public interest out of its regularorder.
The venue for an action under this section shall be as specified insubdivision 7 of § 8.01-262.
(Code 1919, § 4042; 1922, p. 550; 1977, c. 624; 1989, c. 537.)