Mercer v. Lowery
| Decision Date | 04 January 1916 |
| Citation | 181 S.W. 1050,193 Mo.App. 106 |
| Parties | KATHERYN MERCER, Respondent, v. CARRIE LOWERY, Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal from St. Louis City Circuit Court.--Hon. Daniel D. Fisher Judge.
AFFIRMED.
Judgment affirmed.
Geo. J Breaker for appellant.
Ellroy V. Selleck for respondent.
This is a suit in replevin. Plaintiff recovered and defendant prosecutes the appeal.
Plaintiff, a married woman, seeks to recover possession of a lot of her personal wearing apparel and some toilet articles. Defendant is a hotel keeper and withholds possession of the articles sued for, asserting the statutory lien of the hotel keeper on the belongings of the guest for accommodations furnished.
It appears that plaintiff and her husband were guests at defendant's hotel for several weeks, and a portion of their bill for accommodations there is unpaid. Defendant asserts it is something more than $ 80.
The evidence tends to prove that plaintiff's husband contracted with defendant for accommodations of both himself and his wife and made several payments to defendant on the bill thus contracted by him. Subsequently he became involved, and both he and his wife left defendant's hotel, but defendant withheld the articles belonging to plaintiff, asserting a lien thereon. There is evidence, too, that defendant stored the goods for plaintiff at her request subsequently for a time, and a warehouseman's lien is asserted on this; but the evidence touching this matter is pro and con and the jury found the issue for plaintiff under proper instruction, as though no lien obtained on account of such storage. The question concerning this is, therefore, to be put aside, and the subject-matter for consideration relates to the right of defendant hotel keeper to withhold the goods of plaintiff for the accommodations contracted for by the husband for the use of both. The evidence is abundant to the effect that plaintiff's husband contracted the indebtedness touching the accommodations for both himself and his wife, and also those furnished to her brother, who visited them, and the jury so found the fact to be.
The court instructed the jury that, in order to sustain the lien asserted by defendant with respect to plaintiff's separate goods, it was essential to find an indebtedness contracted by her--that is to say, it was not sufficient to predicate such lien against plaintiff's personal goods on the debt of the husband. The argument advanced for a reversal of the judgment is to the effect that such is an erroneous view of the statute; but we are not so persuaded.
The statute involved is as follows:
"Hotel, inn and boarding house keepers shall have a lien upon the baggage and other valuables of their guests or boarders brought into such hotel, inn or boarding house by such guests or boarders, and upon the wages of such guests or boarders, for their proper charges due from such guests or boarders for their accommodation, boarding and lodging, and such extras as are furnished at their request." [Section 8247, R. S. 1909.]
It is to be said that neither plaintiff nor her husband was a boarder at defendant's hotel, but rather enjoyed the use of rooms there only.
It is argued that the word "guest" in the statute above quoted includes the plaintiff as well as her husband, though the indebtedness was contracted by him, and, therefore creates a lien on her goods, because she was such guest. This statute was expounded by the court in Wyckoff v. Southern Hotel Co., 24 Mo.App. 382, where it is declared to have repealed the common law on the subject, in that it displaced the prior rule,...
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L.E. Lines Music Co. v. Holt
...or under his control without regard to the ownership of such property. Sec. 3199, R. S. 1929; Wyckoff v. Southern Hotel Co., supra; Mercer v. Lowery, supra. Section 13090, Revised Statutes 1929, enacted in 1913 (Laws 1913, p. 351), which seeks to incorporate in the law of Missouri the commo......