The government class book / Designed for the instruction of youth in the principles of constitutional government and the rights and duties of citizens.

by Andrew W. Young

Chapter LVII.

Bailment.

§1. The word bailment is from bail, French, to deliver. (Chap. XVIII, §14.) Bailment, in law, is a delivery of goods, in trust, upon agreement that the trust shall be executed, and the goods restored by the bailee, when the purpose of the bailment shall have been, answered.

§2. A person who receives goods to be kept and returned without reward, must keep them with reasonable care, or, if they receive injury, he will be liable for the damage: in other words, he is responsible only for gross neglect. Gross neglect is a want of that care which every man of common sense takes of his own property. A depositary, who is a person with whom goods are deposited, has no right to use the goods intrusted to him.

§3. A mandatary, or one who undertakes to do an act for another without recompense, in respect to the thing bailed to him, is responsible for gross neglect, if he undertakes and does the work amiss; but it is thought that for agreeing to do, and not undertaking or doing at all, he is not liable for damage.

§4. The borrower of an article, as a horse, carriage, or book, without reward, is liable for damage in case of slight neglect. But if the article is applied only to the use for which it is borrowed, is used carefully by the borrower only, and returned within the time for which it was borrowed, he is not liable.

§5. Property taken in pledge as security for a debt or an engagement, must be kept with ordinary care; in other words, the pawnee is answerable only for ordinary neglect; and if the goods should then be lost or destroyed, the pawner is still liable for the debt. If the pawnee derives any profit from the use of the property, he must apply the profits, after deducting necessary expenses, toward the debt.

§6. Another kind of bailment is the hiring of property for a reward. If an article is injured or destroyed without any fault on the part of the hirer, the loss falls on the owner, for the risk is with him.

§7. If work or care is to be bestowed for a recompense on the thing delivered, the workman is liable for ordinary neglect; and the work must be performed with proper skill, or he is answerable for damage. If a tailor receives cloth to be made into a coat, he is bound to do it in a workmanlike manner.

§8. Innkeepers are in general responsible for all injuries to the goods and baggage of their guests, even for thefts. But for loss caused by unavoidable accident, or by superior force, as robbery, they are not liable.

§9. A person who carries goods for hire in a particular case, and not as a common carrier, is answerable only for ordinary neglect, unless he expressly takes the risk of a common carrier.

§10. A common carrier is one who carries goods for hire as a common business, whether by land or by water, and is responsible to the owner of the goods, even if robbed of them. He is in the nature of an insurer, and is answerable for all losses, except in cases of the act of God, as by lightning, storms, floods, &c. and public enemies, as in time of war.

§11. A common carrier is bound to receive from any person paying or tendering the freight charges, such goods as he is accustomed to carry, and as are offered for the place to which he carries. But he may refuse to receive them if he is full, or if they are dangerous to be carried, or for other good reasons. He may refuse to take them unless the charges are paid; but if he agrees to take payment at the end of the route, he may retain them there until the freight is paid. A carrier must deliver freight in a reasonable time; but he is not liable for loss by the freezing of a river or canal during his voyage, if he has used due diligence.

§12. Proprietors of a stage coach do not warrant the safety of passengers as common carriers; and they are not responsible for mere accidents to the persons of the passengers, but only for the want of due care. Slight fault, unskillfulness, or negligence, either as to the sufficiency of the carriage, or to the driving of it, may render the owner responsible in damages for injury to passengers. But as public carriers, they are answerable for the loss of a box or parcel of goods, though ignorant of its contents, unless the owner fraudulently conceals the value or nature of the article, or deludes the carrier by treating it as of little or no value. Public carriers are responsible for the baggage of their passengers, though they advertise it as being at the risk of the owners.