1 Utah 142 | Utah | 1874
delivered the Opinion of the Court.
Lawrence and Mann sued Howard upon a board bilb which had been assigned to them by Tilden & Lawrence-The latter were hotel keepers in Salt Lake City, and Plaintiffs were their successors in business.
The Defendant denies the account, and for further defense, sets up that Plaintiffs are indebted to him in a sum exceeding said account, for baggage and.clothing of his, detained by Plaintiffs, and converted to their own use.
In this country hotel keepers act in a double capacity, being both innkeepers and boarding-house keepers. As innkeepers, they entertain travelers and transient persons, those who come without bargain as to time and price, and go away at pleasure, paying for only actual entertainment received. As boarding-house keepers they entertain residents and regular boarders and lodgers for definite lengths of time and at specific prices previously agreed upon.
In the case before us, the Defendant was not a traveler nor a transient guest, but one living at the hotel as a regular boarder by the month, at a price fixed by contract. The Defendant was a resident of Salt Lake City, and his place of abode in that city was the hotel of Plaintiffs’ assignors. The hotei was his home. He was in no sense a guest, so as to hold the Plaintiffs or their assignors, to their peculiar liability as innkeepers. They were liable only as boarding-house keepers.
If the goods were taken whilst Defendant was still a boarder and lodger at the hotel', the Plaintiffs were not liable, as ordinary diligence was used by the keepers of the house to make safe all articles left in the rooms, by requiring the lodgers to deposit the keys in the hotel office. Instead of obeying this rule, the Defendant frequently left the key of his room in the door. He was thris guilty of the only negligence shown to exist whilst he remained as a boarder. But it. is not claimed that the goods were lost whilst he was a hoarder and lodger, but
The Judgment of the Court below is affirmed.