“You speak of money enough for one’s daily wants and traveling expenses being all that for which an innkeeper is liable,” said a gentleman who had hitherto been a quiet listener.
“Well, sir, I do not like to speak dogmatically, but it seems that the tendency of some modern decisions is to hold that the innkeeper should not be liable for any money beyond that amount, even though put in a safe, unless a special contract has been made, or it has been actually delivered to the proprietor or his servant, with notice not only of the kind of property it was, but also of the amount. It is not sufficient to mark a package ‘money,’ for it is argued that it would be highly unjust, and not founded upon any principle on which an innkeeper’s liability rests, for a traveler to bring into an inn, unobserved, any amount of valuables, without notice to the innkeeper, and hold him responsible for their safe keeping. There should be a restriction or qualification of such liability, if it exists; and that must be a warning to the innkeeper of the extra risk he is about to run.[236] But the Court of Appeals in New York State takes a different view, and holds that if one complies with the law, and deposits his money in the safe, the innkeeper is liable for the full amount, irrespective of the question whether or not it was all required for the purposes of the journey.[237]
“And, I might add,” said my interlocutor, “the celebrated Story made no exception, and seemed to consider it one of the A B C principles of law that an innkeeper is liable for the loss of the money of his guest, stolen from his room, as well as for his goods and chattels, and that such liability extends to all the money of the guest placed within the inn, and is not confined to such sums only as are necessary and designed for ordinary traveling expenses.[238] Then, sir, our great Chancellor Kent lays it down as admitting of no peradventure, that an innkeeper is bound absolutely to keep safe the property of his guest within the inn, whether he knows of it or not, and that his responsibility extends to all his guest’s servants, and to all the goods, chattels, and moneys of the guest, their safe custody being part of the contract to feed and lodge for a suitable reward.[239] If you are not satisfied with the words of these men—alike the pride and the ornament of America—let us cross the ocean and hear what Sir Wm. Blackstone saith; he speaketh after this wise: that an innkeeper’s negligence in suffering a robbery of his guest is an implied consent to the robbery, and he must make good the loss.[240] Then Lord Tenterden held that there was no distinction between money and goods; and all the other judges of the court said ‘amen.’”[241]
“Excuse my interrupting you in your interesting remarks,” said I.
“Quite excusable, sir, for I am only speaking in the cause of right, and because I think some judges are inclined to cut loose from the safe moorings of the old common law, rendered dear to us by the adjudications of the learned men of the Bench for generations past, both in the old and new worlds; and I am satisfied that a contrary doctrine will be terrible in its effects in this great commercial community of ours, where our business men spend so large a portion of their time at inns in pursuit of their calling.[242] But what were you going to say?”
“Simply,” I remarked, “that in the case before Tenterden the amount lost was only £50, and it was stated to have been kept to meet daily expenses only. He said he could see no distinction in this respect between an innkeeper and a carrier; and there are many cases to the effect that a carrier will not be responsible for any money of a passenger except what is needful for traveling purposes and personal use,[243] unless the loss was occasioned by the gross negligence of the carrier.”
“Well, other English judges have likewise held that an innkeeper’s liability is not restricted merely to the guests’ travelling expenses;[244] and if we recross the mighty ocean we find our judges in firm accord with their confreres.”[245]
“But,” I said, “but in one case the amount was only two hundred dollars,[246] and in another it was but twenty-five dollars.[247] And in still another case decided, as you say, although the cash lost was more than sufficient to pay the expenses of the man from whom it was taken, still it was not his own; he merely held it to pay others, who were stopping at the same house, and were witnesses in a suit which the money-holder was superintending, or to pay their expenses at the inn.”[248]
“On the other hand,” said the defender of the rights of the people, “in a California hotel there was this notice: ‘Deposit your valuables and money in the safe at the office;’ and a guest accordingly deposited a large amount of gold dust and coin, which the proprietor received without objection. Afterwards, the clerk was knocked down and the safe robbed, it not being locked, and the publican was held liable for the whole amount.[249] And where a man had stolen from his room a package of jewelry, which the clerk had told him would be quite safe there, the host was held liable, even in New York State.[250] And so, in Kentucky, where a safe was robbed by a discharged clerk, although in this last case the innkeeper had told the guest that he would not be responsible for any money put in it.[251] It seems to me to be somewhat absurd that the law should say that unless you deposit your money in the hotel safe the proprietor will not be liable for its loss, and then when you have placed it in the absolute and immediate control of the innkeeper, and, perhaps, his dishonest servant, you should be met the next day, when asking for your own, by the smirking and bowing proprietor, remarking, suaviter in modo: ‘True, sir you gave me twenty thousand dollars for safe-keeping, and I put it in my safe; but, like all riches, it has taken to itself wings and flown away. However, my dear sir, here are one hundred dollars to pay your expenses, and take you comfortably to your journey’s end.’”
“There appears to be something to be said on both sides,” I remarked, wearying of the discussion from which all others, save my adversary and myself, had long since fled; for when the time comes for my funeral expenses to be incurred, no one will be able (whatever my readers may think) to say of me, as they did of Lord Macaulay,