26 Ala. 371 | Ala. | 1855
—The law held the innkeeper responsible to travelers who became his guests, for all losses infra hospitium, in every case, unless he proved that it was not owing to any default in him or his servants (Calye’s case, 8 Co. 32); and some of the cases go further, and hold him liable for the acts of other guests.—Jones on Bailm. 94; Story on Bailm., § 470; Shaw v. Berry, 31 Maine 478. But there is a distinction between the liability of innkeepers towards guests and boarders, which was taken at an early day. — Calye’s case, supra; Bacon’s Abr., “Inns and Innkeepers”, c. 5 ; Story on Bailm. (4th ed.) § 477 (3). If the goods lost belong to a boarder, in order to charge the innkeeper, he would be required to show that the loss was owing to the failure on his part to discharge the duties which his situation as boardinghouse-keeper, or the special contract -with the other party, imposed on him; and these duties must be measured by the analogies of the law applicable to other species of bailments, The hotel-keeper employs the servants to attend to the rooms, and his boarders have a right to expect that he will employ those who are honest; and if he fails to do so, and a loss is thereby occasioned, without negligence on the other side, he is held responsible, precisely on the same principle that a steamboat owner is, if an injury is sustained by the failure to employ a skilful pilot, or a careful engineer, or a competent captain.—Walker v. Bolling, 22 Ala. All bailees are liable to third persons for the acts of their agents or servants, done in the course of their employment. We do not mean to say, that it is not incumbent on the boarder to use that degree of care which ordinary prudence requires. The guest who, after exposing bank notes which he had in a box in the presence of many persons, left it in the commercial room, was held guilty
Neither was there any error in what was said by the court to the jury, in relation to their being misled by the case read by the counsel for the defendants on the trial below. JYon constat that it laid down the law correctly ; but whether it did or not, we see no impropriety in the judge instructing the jury that they were not to receive it as law further than was warranted by the charge of the court. If the case read was regarded by the counsel as a correct exposition of the law, and applicable to the case on trial, he might properly have requested a charge which asserted the same legal proposition; but failing to do this, we cannot say there was any error in the action of the court in this respect.
So, also, as to the refusal of the judge, after the argument was closed and the cause submitted to the jury, to allow the counsel to explain the distinction between a boarder and a guest. These are matters properly belonging to the conduct of the cause, which are entrusted very properly to the discretion of the judge trying the cause, and are not revisable here.
But in instructing the jury that the main charge was to be with them the controlling charge, we think the court erred. When a charge is requested, which has not been given, is not abstract, and asserts a correct legal proposition, the party has
For this error, the judgment is reversed, and the cause demanded.