Zurich Fire Ins. Co. of N. Y. v. Weil

• Decision Date: 12 June 1953
• Citation: 259 S.W.2d 54
• Parties: ZURICH FIRE INS. CO. OF NEW YORK v. WEIL.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 54

259 S.W.2d 54

ZURICH FIRE INS. CO. OF NEW YORK v. WEIL.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

June 12, 1953.

Earle T. Shoup and W. Pelham McMurry, Paducah, for appellant.

Wheeler & Marshall, Paducah, for appellee.

CAMMACK, Justice.

This is an action by the Zurich Fire Insurance Company, as subrogee of its insured, Ventrelle, against the Irvin Cobb Hotel for damage to the automobile of Ventrelle, a guest at the Hotel. The circuit court, on joint motion of the parties, considered the case without a jury and entered judgment for the defendant.

Ventrelle drove his automobile to the entrance of the Hotel, parked at the curb and went in and registered. A bellboy, McManus, went with him to the car, removed his luggage and showed him to his room. Ventrelle asked McManus about storage of the automobile and McManus took his car keys and gave him a claim check. McManus then placed the keys and the stub of the claim check on the registration desk and told the room clerk to call the garage. When Ventrelle called for his automobile the next day it was missing and was later discovered wrecked several miles away. Subsequently it was learned that another bellboy, Franklin, had filched the keys from the desk and taken the car.

The trial court found that the Hotel had not undertaken to provide storage facilities for automobiles belonging to its guests, but had merely made an arrangement with the Ray H. Mullen Company whereby a guest could store his car with the Mullen Company. The court stressed the facts that under the arrangement the Mullen Company called for the cars at the Hotel, delivered them back to the Hotel, provided the claim checks and collected the charges. From these facts the court concluded that McManus, in arranging the storage, was not an agent of the Hotel, but was an agent of Ventrelle or the Mullen Company, and that the automobile never came into the custody of the Hotel. We believe that this conclusion is erroneous. After Ventrelle registered as a guest and turned his keys over to the bellboy, the car was in the custody of the Hotel. See Park-o-Tell Co. v. Roskamp, 1950, 203 Okl. 493, 223 P.2d 375; Merchants Fire Assur. Corp. of N. Y. v. Zion's Securities Corp., 1945, 109 Utah 13, 163 P.2d 319; Andrew Jackson Hotel, Inc. v. Platt, 19 Tenn.App. 360, 89 S.W.2d 179; Kallish v. Meyer Hotel Co., 1944, 182 Tenn. 29, 184 S.W.2d 45; Smith v. Robinson, Tex.Civ.App., 1927, 300 S.W. 651.

We need not consider whether the arrangement between the Hotel and the garage was intended to make the Hotel the agent of the garage to solicit business or the garage the agent of the Hotel to store its guests' automobiles. Whatever may have been the private understanding between the Hotel and the garage, it is clear from the evidence of both parties that Ventrelle was led to believe that he was entrusting his car to the Hotel. We conclude that Ventrelle turned his car over to the keeping of the Hotel through its employees, the bellhop, McManus, and the room clerk.

When a hotel takes custody of a guest's automobile, what duty arises? At common law an innkeeper was practically an insurer of the safety of the property of his guests, except as against loss resulting from an act of God, a public enemy or the fault of the guest himself. This liability extended to all goods or property brought by a guest and received within the inn, 28 Am.Jur., Innkeepers, Sec. 82, p. 599, and has been applied in cases involving a guest's automobile where the automobile has been placed under the custody of the innkeeper. 28 Am.Jur. 601; Aria v. Bridge House Hotel, 137 L.T.N.S. 299; Park-o-Tell Co. v. Roskamp, 1950, 203 Okl. 493, 223 P.2d 375; Merchants Fire Assur. Corp. of N. Y. v. Zion's Securities Corp., 1945, 109 Utah 13, 163 P.2d 319; Andrew Jackson Hotel v. Platt, 19 Tenn.App. 360, 89 S.W.2d 179. We recognized the rule in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Altamount Springs Hotel Co., 1924, 206 Ky. 494, 267 S.W. 555, but found it inapplicable there because the plaintiff was a 'boarder' rather than a 'guest.'

We are not required to decide in this case whether the Hotel could be held liable as an innkeeper for loss of property intra hospitium. The Hotel owed Ventrelle at least the duty of a bailee for hire and was bound to use ordinary care in safeguarding his property. Smith v. Robinson, Tex.Civ.App., 1927, 300 S.W. 651; Weisman v. Holley Hotel Co., 1946, 128 W.Va. 476, 37 S.E.2d 94; Todd v. Natchez-Eola Hotels Co., 1934, 171 Miss. 577, 157 So. 703. See Parkrite Auto Park, Inc. v. Badgett, Ky., 242 S.W.2d 630. The trial court ruled that if Ventrelle had placed his car in the custody of the Hotel, it was a gratuitous bailee liable only for gross neglect or bad faith. This was erroneous. The fact that neither Ventrelle nor the garage made any direct payment to the Hotel for the parking service is immaterial. Kallish...