lie duty was involved also a duty to himself as an individual, and that he has suffered a special and peculiar injury by reason of its non-performance. But where a duty to im prove or repair a road or street is an imper ative one, and is one in which an individual lias a particular private interest as distin guished from that which he has in common with other members of the community, the officer who negligently performs or cor ruptly refuses to perform the duty so en joined upon him must make good to the in dividual any special loss or damage that he may have sustained. The plaintiff cannot recover unless the defendant owed to her the duty other than that owing to the public generally, and unless a special injury has re sulted to her from a breach of that duty. No private action will lie for damages of the same kind as those sustained by the general public, although the plaintiff may be dam aged in a much greater degree than any other person. . . . "In carrying out the contract for the im provement, where, as here, it is for a pave ment, in accordance with the ordinance and the contract, the contractor and the board of local improvements are performing a duty which they owe to the public generally, of providing a paved street upon which travel and the transportation of property will be promoted. That duty they owe to the entire community, but they also owe a special duty to the owner of the property assessed to comply with, and to enforce compliance with, the ordinance and the con tract for the purpose of benefiting and in creasing the value of that property. That is a duty they do not owe to the general public. The law does not require that the improvements should benefit any property except the property specially assessed. It is apparent, therefore, that the members of the board of local improvements not only owe a special duty to the owner of the prop erty specially assessed, but that the substi tution by them of an improvement of a dif ferent and inferior character from that to which stich property owner is entitled and for which he has paid, visits an injury upon
him of a kind not sustained by the general public." Several cases and text-books were cited in support of the propositions advanced. NOTICE. (Bv TKLEGRAPH — STATUTORY REQUIRE MENTS.) SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA
That a telegraph line may in its legal as pect be often regarded as an elongated pen holder, is again illustrated in Western Un ion Telegraph Company т. Bailey, 42 South eastern Reporter 89. It is required by stat ute in Georgia that a plaintiff in ccrtiorari shall cause written notice of the sanction of the writ and of the time and place of hearing to be given the defendant, and pursuant to this statute a message containing a proper notice and signed by a plaintiff in ccrtiorari was sent by telegraph, and after having been transcribed in writing was properly deliv ered, and it is determined that such a notice is a written notice within the meaning of the statute. The object of the notice, says the court, is to give the opposite party timely information that the judge has sanctioned the writ and that it will be heard at a certain time and place. The object of requiring it to be in writing is to prevent, as far as pos sible, all disputes as to the correctness and sufficiency of the notices and as to whether it was given. It is said that if the plaintiff were to write the notice himself and send it by another, it would clearly be sufficient, as would also be the case if his attorney were to write it and have it delivered by a mes senger, or if the attorney authorized his clerk to write and deliver the notice. From these considerations it is argued that the tel egraph company may in the same manner be employed as agent, it being said that though this mode of service is not the usual one, yet the telegraph and telephone are used daily in all business transactions, and have been recognized by the courts. Croswell on Electricity, §690, and Joyce, ElectricLaw, §901. supporting the doctrine that a contract made by telegraph is a contract in writing within the meaning of the statute of frauds, are referred to in support of the holding.
