Talbott v. Southern Seminary Inc

• Decision Date: 17 November 1921
• Citation: 109 S.E. 440
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: TALBOTT. v. SOUTHERN SEMINARY, Inc.

109 S.E. 440

TALBOTT.

v.SOUTHERN SEMINARY, Inc.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Nov.17, 1921.

Error to Corporation Court of Buena Vista.

Action in detinue by A. L. Talbott against the Southern Seminary, Inc. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error. Reversed.

H. S. Rucker, of Buena Vista, for plaintiff in error.

Jno. Dabney Smith, of Buena Vista, for defendant in error.

BURKS, J. A. L. Talbott entered his two daughters as students in the Southern Seminary, Incorporated, and a few days thereafter withdrew them. The seminary seized the trunks of the two girls and refused to deliver them to their father, who was the owner thereof. Thereupon Talbott sued out a warrant in detinue for the trunks and their contents before a justice of the peace, which, upon application of the defendant, was removed to the corporation court of the city of Buena Vista for the trial. At the trial before a Jury in that court, there was a verdict and Judgment for the defendant. The case is brought here upon a writ of error to that judgment awarded to the plaintiff.

The defendant claimed a lien on the trunks and contents by virtue of section 6444 of the Code, and the trial court instructed the jury in accordance with that view. Whether that section is applicable to the facts of this case is the crucial question and the only one we need decide, although others were discussed.

The "Southern Seminary, Incorporated, " as its name imports, is an incorporated institution, and, by the terms of its charter, "The purposes for which it is formed are to conduct a private school for girls and young women." As "subsidiary purposes, " it is allowed to deal in real or personal property, to make contracts, to issue bonds, to deal in its own stock and that of other companies, to declare dividends, "and to exercise other powers incident to the carrying out of the purposes of this charter of incorporation not inconsistent with the laws of the state of Virginia." These are all of its enumerated powers, and we may assume, for the purposes of this case, that these powers embraced the power to conduct a boarding school.

Section 6444 of the Code is as follows:

"Every innkeeper, keeper of a boarding house, or house of private entertainment, shall have a lien upon and may retain possession of, the baggage and other property of his guest or boarder brought upon his premises, and also upon the property of an employer of such guest or boarder, controlled and brought upon said premises by such guest or boarder in the course of his employment, for the proper charges due from such guest for his board and lodging."

When this statute was enacted in 1879 (Acts 1878-79, p. 76), a lien was given to "the keeper of any ordinary, house of private entertainment or boarding house." There was no comma after the words "private enter-tainment" This statute was carried into the Code of 1887 as section 2489, and there was some change in the phraseology and punctuation. In that section a lien is given to "every innkeeper, keeper of an ordinary, boarding house, and house of private entertainment." Prior to that time no distinction had been made in the statute between an innkeeper and the keeper of an ordinary. Section 2489 was amended in 1906 (Acts 1906, p. 250). In the amendment a lien is given to "every innkeeper, keeper of an ordinary, boarding house or house of private entertainment." This act restores the punctuation of the act of 1879, apparently making "boarding house" and "house of private entertainment" synonymous. For many years prior to the first enactment, the term "ordinary" had a well-defined meaning in this state. It was used to designate a public house where food and lodging were furnished to the traveler and his beast, at fixed rates, open to whoever might apply for accommodation, and...