220 



INNKEEPERS, VETERINARY SUKGEONS, ETC. 



Where a 

 Guest's 

 Horse is 

 stolen. 



Where ano- 

 ther person's 

 Horse is 

 stolen. 



Principle 

 npon which 

 liability de- 

 pends. 



Horse out at 

 grass by the 

 Guest's de- 

 sire. 



If the Guest's Horse is stolen tlie Innkeeper is answer- 

 able in an action upon the custom of the realm (/r), even 

 if the owner has gone away for several days, and it is 

 lost or stolen in his absence, or if it has been brought by 

 a servant (/). And inasmuch as 26 & 27 Yict. c. 41, s. 1, 

 specially exempts Horses from the operation of that Act, 

 the Innkeeper's liability as respects amount is not restricted 

 with regard to them. 



But if a person takes another^s Horse, and rides him to 

 an Inn where he is lost or stolen, the owner has no action 

 against the Host, but has his remedy against the taker {m) . 



The liability of an Innkeeper for loss continues only so 

 long as he derives benefit from his visitor or his property, 

 for if the Innkeeper could not gain a profit, he is not liable 

 to suffer loss without a special undertaking {n), for so long 

 only is a visitor a Guest. Upon this principle a person 

 leaving a Horse at an Inn becomes a Guest, while a person 

 leaving dead goods at an Inn does not become a Guest, for 

 the Horse must be fed, by which the Innkeeper has gain (o). 

 And therefore the Innkeeper is liable for the loss of the 

 Horse, although its owner is not staying at the Inn. 

 Thus, too, when a person came to an Inn, and desired to 

 leave some goods there till the next week, which was 

 refused, and then stayed to drink something, during which 

 time his goods were stolen, the Innkeeper was held to be 

 liable (7:*). But if a man who has been a Guest, gives up 

 his room, and quits the Inn for a few days, intending to 

 return, and asks for permission to leave his goods at the 

 Inn, and the Innkeeper takes charge of them, the Innkeeper 

 is clothed only with the ordinary duties and responsibilities 

 of a bailee {q). 



An Innkeeper is only bound by the custom of the realm 

 to answer for those things that are infra hospitimn, and 

 not for anything out of his Inn. For where a Horse is 

 lost or stolen when out at grass by the Guest's desire, the 

 Host is not chargeable, unless it was the consequence of 

 his uilful negligence (/•) : for instance, an action hes against 



ik) Fitzherbert'sNat. Brev. 943; 

 Jelly V. Clark, Cro. Jac. 189 ; York 

 V. Grcenanqh, 2 Lord Kaym. 867 ; 

 S. C. 1 Salk. 338. 



{I) 1 Salk. 338 ; 1 Rol. Abr. 3 ; 

 Moor, 877; Cro. Jac. 224; Yelv. 

 162; Bac. Abr. tit. Inns and Inn- 

 keepers. 



(w) 1 Rol. Abr. 3. 



Gelley v. Clerk, Cro. Jac. 188. 

 York V. Grindstone, 1 Salk. 



{n) 



(0) 

 388. 



(;;) BoDiet v. Mellor, 5 T. R. 

 273. 



(q) Smith 

 132. 



(r) Saunders v. Flummcr, Orl. 

 Bridg. 227. 



Dcarlove, 6 C. B. 



