236 



LIVERY-STABLE KEEPEES, AGISTERS, ETC. 



Where the 



stolen from 

 the hirer. 



AMiere the 

 horse is stolen 

 by the hirer. 



Must have 

 been oriffi- 



had acted honafide, and had given the hirer the full value 

 for it, as the hirer could give him no better title than he 

 got himself (p). 



If through the hirer's negligence, as by leaving the 

 door of his stable open at night, the horse be stolen, he 

 must answer for it ; but not if he be robbed of it by high- 

 waymen, unless by his imprudence he gave occasion to the 

 robbery, as by travelling at unusual hours, or by taking an 

 unusual road. The hirer is liable in the same way for the 

 negligence of his servant when acting under his directions 

 either express or implied (§■). 



If a person gets a horse out of the possession of the owner 

 under the pretence of hiring it, and then go and offer it 

 for sale, there will be no felony at common law until the 

 sale is actually effected. In the following case the 

 prisoner was indicted for stealing a horse and gig which 

 he had hired of a livery-stable keeper in Stratford Mews, 

 near Manchester Square, London. It appeared that he 

 drove it off for some distance, and offered it for sale at a 

 small price to an innkeeper, who, under pretence of getting 

 him the money, procured a constable and gave him into 

 custody (/•). 



On the trial Pears case (s), Charleicood' s case it) and 

 Senqjle's case (w) were referred to, and the following passage 

 from the latter quoted : — " But, on the other hand, if the 

 hiring was only a preience made use of to get the chaise out 

 of the possession of the owner, without any intention to 

 restore it, or pay for it, in that case the law supposes the 

 possession still to reside with the owner, though the pro- 

 perty itself has gone out of his hands, and then the sub- 

 sequent conversion will be the felony." 



And Chief Justice Tindal said, " This case comes near 

 to many of those which have decided that the appropria- 

 tion of property, under circumstances in some degree 

 similar to the present, amounts to larceny. However, 

 there has been no actual conversion of the property, but 

 only an offer to sell ; therefore the prisoner must be ac- 

 quitted (;r). 



If the owner parts with the possession of a horse for a 



(p) Shelly Y. Ford, 5 C. & P. 

 313. See also Marner v. Banks, 17 

 L. T.,N. S. 147; 16W. E. 62; and 

 see Stolen Horses, ante, Chap. III. 



(17) Jones on Bailments, 88. 



\r) Reg. v. Brooks, 8 C. & P. 295. 



(s) Pear's ease, 1 Leach, 212. 

 [t) Charleivood's ease, 1 Leach, 409. 

 (u) Smnple's case, 1 Leach, 420. 

 \x) Reg. V. Brooks, 8 C. & P. 295. 

 But see post. 



