10 Daly 265 | New York Court of Common Pleas | 1881
[After stating the facts as above.]—The rule that makes the landlord of an inn responsible for the goods of his guest is a severe one, and can only be applied where the conventional relation of inn-keeper and guest exists. It cannot be extended so as to protect one who is not a guest, but a mere caller on a guest, or a transient visitor upon the invitation of a guest. Such was the status of the plaintiff in this case. He claims to have become a guest himself by ordering and taking dinner while waiting for his uncle. This put him in no different position from that he would have occupied had he sat down with' his uncle as he had been invited to do. "" He was there upon invitation of that gentleman, and with no intent to sojourn at the hotel as a guest for even the briefest period. This distinguishes the case from Kopper v. Willis (9 Daly, 460), and from Bennet v. Mellor (5 T. R. 273), where the parties came to the inn to partake of its entertainment or accommodation, and for no other purpose. In the former case, plaintiff went
The judgment should be reversed, with costs.
There must be at least two parties to every contract, and when it is attempted to charge an innkeeper with liability for the loss of goods belonging to a person who asserts that he was a guest, the inquiry is, how was the relation of guest and inn-keeper created ? Ho person can make himself a guest without the inn-keeper’s assent. Of course, that assent may be given by an agent or a servant, entrusted with the duty of receiving and rejecting travelers. There need be no formal bargain, for the acceptance of a person as a guest will be implied, where he calls for refreshment which is furnished to him by a servant who has the discretion either to give or to withhold it. But a man cannot make himself a guest by slipping into the dining room of a hotel and
It is on this ground alone, that I place my decision, though I concur with Judge Daly in reversing the judgment.
Judgment reversed, with costs.