Minor v. Staples
| Decision Date | 04 August 1880 |
| Citation | 71 Me. 316 |
| Parties | CHARLES E. MINOR v. E. C. STAPLES. |
| Court | Maine Supreme Court |
ON REPORT from superior court, Cumberland county.
An action to recover of the defendant, the proprietor of the Old Orchard House, at Old Orchard beach, as inn keeper, for money, watch, chain and ring of the plaintiff, of the agreed value of two hundred and eighty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents, stolen August 20, 1877, from a bath house, kept by the defendant on the sea shore, where persons bathing in the sea, change their garments and leave their clothes, and where the plaintiff left his clothes, and the money and jewelry which were stolen while he was absent bathing. The plaintiff was at that time a guest at defendant's inn.
C P. Mattocks, for the plaintiff.
W. L Putman, for the defendant.
The question is whether one who keeps an inn, and also keeps a bath house separate from his inn, is chargable, as innkeeper for property stolen from the bath house. We think he is not. It seems to us that the keeping of the inn and the keeping of the bath house are separate and distinct employments, and involve separate and distinct duties and liabilities. One may be an innkeeper without being a bath house keeper, or he may be a bath house keeper without being an innkeeper; or the same person may engage in both employments; just as a livery stable keeper may also be a common carrier of passengers; but we do not think his doing so will make him responsible in the one capacity for liabilities incurred in the other. We are not now speaking of bath rooms attached to or kept within hotels, but of separate buildings, erected upon the sea shore, and used, not as bath rooms, but as places in which those who bathe in the sea change their garments and leave their clothes, and other valuables, while so bathing. It seems to us that such an establishment is as distinct from an inn as a wharf or a boat house would be; and that an innkeeper, as such, can no more be made responsible for property stolen from such a bath house than he could be for property stolen from a wharf, or a boat house, if he happened to be the keeper of the latter as well as the former.
This suit is against the defendant as innkeeper. The declaration avers that he kept a common inn, and received the plaintiff into said inn, together with his money, and a watch, and a chain, and a ring; and that while the plaintiff was a guest therein,...
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Emery v. Wildwood Management, Inc., No. CIV. 02-CV-33-B-K.
...Another early Law Court opinion suggests in dicta that a "liver[y] stable keeper may ... be a common carrier of passengers." Minor v. Staples, 71 Me. 316, 316 (1880). 8. I recognize that Wildwood's first exhibit contains materials related to its status as a national park concession. I refus......
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Walpert v. Bohan
... ... garments and leave their clothes, he is not chargeable as an ... innkeeper for property stolen from the bathhouse. Minor ... v. Staples, 71 Me. 316, 36 Am.Rep. 318. In the opinion ... in this case it is said: "We are not now speaking of ... bathrooms attached to or ... ...
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Amey v. Winchester
...in respect of duties and liabilities as not to make him responsible in the one capacity for liabilities incurred in the other. See Minor v. Staples, 71 Me. 316. Nor does the fact that the plaintiffs had registered, and been assigned a room in the inn, affect the legal status of either party......