James v. Governor's House, Inc.

• Decision Date: 07 August 1969
• Docket Number: 3 Div. 248
• Citation: 284 Ala. 404,225 So.2d 815
• Parties: Mrs. Ruth T. James v. GOVERNOR'S HOUSE INC., a Corporation.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 815

225 So.2d 815

284 Ala. 404

Mrs. Ruth T. James v. GOVERNOR'S HOUSE INC., a Corporation.

3 Div. 248.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Aug. 7, 1969.

John P. Kohn, Montgomery; Ira De Ment, Montgomery, for appellant.

James Garrett, Charles A. Stakely, Jr., Rushton, Stakely & Johnston, Montgomery, for appellee.

LAWSON, Justice.

Late in the afternoon of July 21, 1965, Mrs. Ruth T. James, her twelve-year-old daughter, her eighteen-month-old son, and her sister, Mrs. D.W. Stoddard, registered as guests of the Governor's House Motel, hereinafter referred to as the motel, in the City of Montgomery. Mrs. James and her party, after their bill was paid, left the motel on July 23, 1965. The motel is operated by Governor's House, Inc., a corporation.

On November 30, 1965, Mrs. James filed suit in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County against Governor's House, Inc., a corporation, seeking to recover damages in the amount of $200,000 which she alleged she sustained on July 21, 1965, at the motel as a result of the conduct of certain agents, servants or employees of the defendant.

The case went to the jury on Mrs. James' complaint, which contained seven counts, and on the defendant's plea of the general issue in short by consent, with leave, etc.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant. Judgment was rendered in accord with the verdict. After her motion for new trial was denied, Mrs. James appealed to this court.

On this appeal we are not concerned with the sufficiency of the evidence to go to the jury or with any assertion that the verdict was not sustained by the evidence. So there is no occasion to set out herein any of the testimony adduced in the trial below other than that of Mrs. James as it bears on the alleged wrongful conduct of the defendant's agents, servants and employees.

Mrs. James testified that shortly after she and her party reached the room assigned to them, they put on bathing suits and went to the motel swimming pool. Mrs. James did not go swimming but remained at the pool for approximately an hour looking after her young son. He began to cry and Mrs. James then carried him to their room. Her daughter and sister remained at the pool. Upon entering the room Mrs. James "did not close the door," she "just pushed the door to." While she was engaged in removing the little boy's bathing suit someone "knocked" on the door of the room. A Negro bellboy entered the room and told Mrs. James he had come for the purpose of locking the door between the room occupied by Mrs. James and her party and an adjoining room. The bellboy asked Mrs. James if he could assist her in removing the little boy's bathing suit. She answered in the negative. The bellboy persisted and said, "I am good at this," and tried to remove the boy from his mother's arms, but Mrs. James prevented him from doing so. Then, according to Mrs. James, the bellboy "pushed me back and started kissing me on my neck and feeling me * * * he started putting his hands all over me." Mrs. James told the bellboy she heard someone coming and then he left.

Upon regaining her composure, Mrs. James called a Mr. Allen, the manager of the motel, on the phone and told him what had occurred. According to Mrs. James, Mr. Allen, in the phone conversation, told her, "Don't come here with your damn lies." Later, when Mr. Allen came to her room he "said something about 'your damn lies.' "

We believe the foregoing summary of Mrs. James' testimony is sufficient for the consideration of the written charge given at the request of the defendant which the appellant, plaintiff below, insists should work a reversal of the judgment here under review. We will consider that charge later in the opinion.

We come now to a consideration of the several counts of Mrs. James' complaint, because the nature of those counts has a bearing on our consideration of appellant's contention that the giving of the charge hereafter to be considered should work a reversal.

In brief filed here on behalf of appellant the several counts of the complaint are characterized as follows:

" * * * Counts One through Three of the complaint claimed on common-law assault and battery. * * * Count Four of the complaint claimed on common-law assault and battery and wrongful entry under the Innkeeper's Law. * * * Counts Five and Six were again for common-law assault and battery. * * * and Count Seven was based on the Innkeeper's Law for insults to a guest by the Innkeeper. * * * "

In several places in appellant's brief reference is made to the "Innkeeper's Law" but appellant's concept of the "Innkeeper's Law" of this state is not spelled out in the brief.

Section 11, Title 24, Code 1940, reads: "In the absence of a special contract, as is authorized in the succeeding section, the rights of guests, and the liability of the keeper, remain as at common law."

But the provisions just noted were not included in Act 412, approved November 13, 1959, Acts of Alabama 1959, Vol. 2, p. 1046, the title of which act reads: "To revise and amend Title 24, Code of Alabama 1940, which relates to hotels and innkeepers." Perhaps the Legislature in enacting Act 412, supra, deemed it unnecessary to reenact the provisions of § 11, Title 24, Code 1940, because of the provisions of § 3, Title 1, Code 1940, which provide: "The common law of England, so far as it is not inconsistent with the constitution, laws and institutions of this state, shall, together with such institutions and laws, be the rule of decisions, and shall continue in force, except as from time to time it may be altered or repealed by the legislature."

In Florence Hotel Co. v. Bumpus, 194 Ala. 69, 69 So. 566, a suit against a hotel based on an alleged breach of duty imposed by law, and growing out of the relation of innkeeper and guest, we said that in the absence of a special contract, as is authorized, the rights of the guest and the liability of the innkeeper remain as at common law. But the opinion in that case was written when the provisions of § 4538, Code 1907, were in effect, which section read as did § 11, Title 24, Code 1940.

In so far as we are aware, there is no constitutional or statutory provision of this state which is inconsistent with the common-law rule relative to the liability of an innkeeper to guests for their mistreatment at the hands of the innkeeper or his servants, agents or employees.

In Florence Hotel Co. v. Bumpus, supra, we observed that an interesting and instructive discussion of the respective rights and duties and responsibilities growing out of the guest-innkeeper relationship at common law is found in the opinion of the court of last resort of the state of New York in the case of De Wolf v. Ford, 193 N.Y. 397, 86 N.E. 527, 21 L.R.A.,N.S., 860. In Dixon v. Hotel Tutwiler Operating Co., 214 Ala. 396, 108 So. 26, we referred to De Wolf as being a leading case on the subject. In both of our cases last cited we quoted with approval from De Wolf. In De Wolf the defendant hotel's servant entered the plaintiff's room without her consent and in vile and insulting language erroneously accused her of impropriety and immorality. The Court of Appeals of New York reversed a judgment dismissing the complaint. In Dixon v. Hotel Tutwiler Operating Co., supra, we quoted with approval the following language from the opinion in the De Wolf case:

" * * * The innkeeper holds himself out as able and willing to entertain guests for hire, and, in the absence of a specific contract, the law implies that he will furnish such entertainment as the character of his inn and reasonable attention to the convenience and comfort of his guests will afford. If the guest is assigned to a room upon the express or implied understanding that he is to be the sole occupant thereof during the time that it is set apart for his use, the innkeeper retains a right of access thereto only at such proper times and for such reasonable purposes as may be necessary in the general conduct of the inn or in attending to the needs of the particular guest. * * * It is equally clear that for the purpose of enabling the innkeeper to fulfill his express or implied contract to furnish his guest with such convenience and comfort as the inn affords, he and his servants must have such access to the room at all such reasonable times as will enable him to fulfill his duty in that behalf. It is obvious that as to this general right of entry no hard and fast rule can be laid down, for what would be reasonable in a case where a room is occupied by two or more guests, or where access to one room can only be had through another, might be highly unreasonable where a separate room is assigned to the exclusive use of a single guest. It is also manifestly proper and necessary that an innkeeper should have the right to make and enforce such reasonable rules as may be designed to prevent immorality, drunkenness, or any form of misconduct that may be offensive to other guests, or that may bring his inn into disrepute, or that may be radically inconsistent with the generally recognized proprieties of life. To these reserved rights of the innkeeper the guest must submit. But the guest also has affirmative rights which the innkeeper is not at liberty to willfully ignore or violate. When a guest is assigned to a room for his exclusive use, it is his for all proper purposes and at all times until he gives it up. This exclusive right of use and possession is subject to such emergent and occasional entries as the innkeeper and his servants may find it necessary to make in the reasonable discharge of their duties; but these entries must be made with due regard to the occasion and at such times and in such manner as are consistent with the rights of the guest. One of the things which a guest for hire at a public inn has the right to insist upon is respectful and decent treatment at the hands of the innkeeper and his servants. That is an essential part of the contract whether it is...