Under ordinary circumstances the hirer of a horse is not responsible for any damage that may happen to it, so long as he has not been guilty either of negligence or of using the horse for a purpose other than that for which it was hired. But if he has broken the agreement made at the time of hiring, then he is liable for the loss resulting from his conduct. Where a horse is hired to take the hirer to a certain place, the usual and customary route should be taken, for should the hirer deviate unnecessarily from the most convenient road, he will be liable. In hiring horses for a special journey, care should be taken by the hirer to point out when he does and when he does not mean to go from place to place by the most direct or usual route. So long as he provides for a deviation he is answerable only for negligence or improper driving; but if he deviate materially, such deviation will amount to improper driving, although his coachmanship may be without reproach.
If a person hire a horse or carriage for a stated period, but return it before the expiration of the time, the owner must keep it on his premises till the time for hire has determined, if he wishes to recover the charge from the hirer. He cannot earn his money twice over; so, if he sells in the meantime, the hirer will not be liable for the price of the hiring.
The liability of a person sitting in a carriage to make good any damage occasioned to the property of others by the driver’s negligence, depends upon the relationship subsisting between the driver and the person driven. This relationship differs according to the ownership of the equipage, or its component parts. The owner of horses and a carriage, driven by a servant in his exclusive employ, has cast upon him the most extended liability for his servant’s negligence; while, on the other hand, the occupant of a hack fly is discharged from any thought of the horses or the driver. If horses and a carriage are jobbed in the manner already described, they are the hirer’s own, so far as the general public are concerned; and if driven by his own coachman, he will be as liable for the latter’s negligence as though he purchased them outright. Provided the hirer of horses use ordinary care in the selection of his coachman—not a job one—he will not be answerable to the owner of the horses for the casual negligence of the servant so engaged. If the driver be a servant of the jobmaster, he does not cease to be so by reason of the owner of the carriage preferring to be driven by that particular servant where there is a choice amongst more, any more than a hack postboy ceases to be the servant of an innkeeper, where a traveller has a particular preference for one over the rest, on account of his sobriety and carefulness. Even wearing the hirer’s livery does not affect the question.
No satisfactory line can be drawn, at which, as a matter of law, the general owner of a carriage, or rather the general employer of the driver, ceased to be responsible, and the temporary hirer became so. Each case of this class must depend upon its own circumstances; and the jury taking these circumstances into consideration, must decide whether, at the time of an accident, the driver is acting as the servant of the hirer, or as the servant of the owner. Generally it may be taken that when the hirer of horses also has the owner’s servant to drive, the servant still continues in the jobmaster’s employ, the ownership of the carriage being immaterial. The horses and man may be reckoned as one, as constituting the motive and guiding power.
A hirer of horses may by his own conduct render himself a co-trespasser with the driver, or even constitute the driver his own servant for the purpose of becoming liable for the result of an accident. If the hirer of a whole equipage direct the owner’s servant to drive at an increased pace in a crowded thoroughfare, or in some other way assume the control of the horses, he will draw on to his own shoulders that responsibility which would under ordinary circumstances rest with the jobmaster. Still more will this be the case if he drives himself. (Field.)
Care of Carriages.—(a) The coach-room should be large, dry, and well ventilated; the walls and ceiling lined and finished in oil or varnish; the windows large, but curtained with blue curtains, so as to admit a moderate amount of light; the floors and ceilings should be kept free from dust or dirt; if the floor is wet when sweeping, the carriage should not be put in until it is dry.
(b) If the stable is of brick or stone, the walls should be lined with a close board partition at least 3 in. from the wall, with openings at the top and bottom to allow a circulation of air between the wall and partition. Never allow a carriage to stand near a brick or stone wall, or any other that is damp, as the dampness affects the paint and trimmings.
(c) Ammonia destroys varnish and affects colours. Care should be taken, therefore, to locate the carriage-room in such a manner that it will not be exposed to the fumes of the stable or manure heap.
(d) A carriage should never be allowed to stand in the carriage-room without being protected from dust by a cotton or linen cover; but this cover should not be put on when the carriage is wet or dusty. Dust if allowed to remain on eats into varnish: the cover should be so arranged as not to touch the carriage.