“They, sir, were equally anxious to protect the public against dishonest publicans, and by their edicts gave an action against them if the goods of travelers were lost or hurt by any means except damno fatali, or by inevitable accident; and even then Ulpian intimates that innkeepers were not altogether restrained from knavish practices or suspicious neglect.”[95]
“Still,” said the by-stander aforesaid, “I do not see how the reticule can be considered to have been under our landlord’s care.”
“To render him liable it is not necessary that the goods be placed in his special keeping, or brought to his special notice. If they be in the inn, brought there in an ordinary and reasonable way by a guest, it is sufficient to charge the proprietor.”[96]
“Yes,” I chimed in, “and it does not matter in what part of the hotel the goods are kept, whether ‘up-stairs, or down-stairs, or in the lady’s chamber’: while they are anywhere within it, they are under the care of Boniface, and he is responsible for their safe custody. He is equally liable, whether baggage is put in a bedroom, a horse handed over to the care of the hostler,[97] or goods placed in an outhouse belonging to the establishment and used for that sort of articles.[98] My friend Epps, on one occasion, went to an inn down in Mississippi, and had his trunk taken to his bedroom, and it being broken into at night and the money purloined, the innkeeper was held liable.”[99]
“A friend of mine,” said the English gent, “who was in the employ of a sweet fellow of the name of Candy, on arriving at an inn gave his luggage to Boots, who placed one package in the hall; afterwards the servant wished to carry it into the commercial room, but the owner requested him to leave it where it was; the parcel mysteriously disappeared, and the innkeeper had the pleasure of paying for it.”[100]
“In fact, I believe an innkeeper cannot make his guest take care of his own goods;[101] nor is a traveler bound to deposit his valuables in the hotel safe, even though he may know that there is one kept for the reception of such articles, and there is a regulation of the house requiring articles of value to be so deposited,”[102] I remarked.
“Are you not stating that rather broadly?” questioned my legal confrere.
“No Vatican Council has proclaimed me infallible. I know full well that when the poet said ‘to err is human,’ he spoke truth. Of course, I am speaking only of the rule in States in which there is no special law or statute on the point, limiting the liability of publicans,” I replied.
“I think, however,” said Mr. Inthelaw, the Englishman, “that it has been held that the innkeeper may refuse to be responsible for the safe custody of the guest’s goods unless they are put in a certain place, and if the guest objects to this, the host will be exonerated in case of loss.[103] And a guest who has actual notice of a regulation of the inn as to the deposit of valuables, and has not complied with it, takes the risk of loss happening from any cause, except, of course, the actual sins of emission and commission of the landlord or his servants.”[104]
“And very reasonably,” remarked a by-stander.