150 Pa. 91 | Pa. | 1892
Opinion by
The defendants were retail dealers in clothing in the city of Philadelphia. The plaintiff, in company with his wife, visited their store for the purpose of purchasing a suit of clothes, having upon his person at the time a watch and chain. Having selected a coat and vest, and, being about to remove the corresponding garments for the purpose of trying on those selected, he took off his watch and chain, and was about to lay it on a pile of clothing, when the salesman who was waiting upon him said : “You had better put your watch here,” indicating a drawer from which the vest had been taken, and adding: “ It will be safe, I guess.” The watch and chain were accordingly put in the drawer, and the drawer was closed by the salesman. Plaintiff, his wife and the salesman, then went to another part of the store where there was a mirror, and the coat and vest having been tried on were found to be satisfactory. They next turned their attention to the selection of a pair of pantaloons, in doing which the plaintiff went twice to a dressing-room connected with the store. While he was thus engaged in trying on pantaloons, the salesman conducted his wife to a seat some distance from the drawer in which the watch and chain had been placed and to the vi
When the defendants opened a retail clothing store, they, thereby invited the public to come into their place of business and purchase clothing in the usual manner. And when they extended this invitation they assumed some duty to the people who should respond to it. Even the householder who permits the use of a path leading to his house is deemed to hold out an invitation to all people who have any reasonable ground for coming thither to pass along his pathway, and is, therefore, held responsible for neglecting to fence off dangerous places: 1 Add. on Torts, 203. So too a shopkeeper is liable for neglect on leaving a' trap door open without any protection by which his customers receive injury: Lancaster C. Co. v. Parnaby, 11 Ad. & E. 223. In like manner it cannot be doubted that if these defendants had maintained or permitted a danger of any kind in their store, and by reason of it the plaintiff had sustained bodily injury, they would have been answerable to him for the consequences. In such case, they would be said
Assuming that the jury would have found that a watch is such personal belonging as men usually carry with them, and that in the selection of a suit of clothes it is necessary or usual to remove it from the person, and lay it aside, and farther that the plaintiff, by direction of the defendant’s salesman, placed his watch in a designated drawer in the store preparatory to the selection of a suit of clothes, to purchase which he visited the store, the defendants thereby became chargeable as bailees. The principles which govern that relation are briefly and clearly stated by Judge Story in his work on bailments thus: “ When the bailment is for the benefit of the bailor, the law requires only slight diligence on the part of the bailee, and of course makes him answerable only for gross neglect. When the bailment is for the sole benefit of the bailee, the law requires great diligence on the part of the bailee, and makes him responsible for slight neglect. When the bailment is reciprocally benefi
The remaining question is whether, upon the assumption that there was a bailment for hire, proof of failure of the defendants to return the watch and chain upon demand was, under the circumstances, sufficient to carry the case to the jury. If what was said by the plaintiff should be taken as proof that the property was lost we would be met with a conflict of authority elsewhere as to the effect of it, and find little in our own books to help us determine whether the burden was upon the plaintiff to prove negligence or upon the defendants to repel the inference of it. But the plaintiff’s evidence amounts to no more than that the salesman examined the drawer in which the watch had been placed and some others and did not find it, and that several persons not employees of the defendants who had been
The judgment is reversed and a venire facias de novo awarded.