Clark v. Burns Hammam Baths

LANGDON, P. J.

This is an appeal by the defendant Burns Hammam Baths from a judgment against it in the sum of $889.50, the value of certain property entrusted by the plaintiff to the care of said defendant which was never returned to the plaintiff.

On July 23', 1921, the plaintiff was a patron of the bathhouse operated by the defendant and deposited money and jewelry in a box provided by the defendant for that purpose, which box was locked and the key, attached. to a rubber band, fastened about plaintiff’s wrist. At the time of receiving this property, an employee of defendant wrote the name of the plaintiff, together with a list of the articles deposited in the box by him, upon a slip of paper and attached, this slip of paper to the outside of the box in some manner, and then replaced the box in its proper com

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partment. The box and the key for the same were numbered 26.

After plaintiff had availed himself of the bathing facilities of the establishment, he retired for the night to a room, which was merely separated from other rooms by curtains. In the morning, about 8:45 o ’clock, he went to a washstand provided for his use, and while there noticed that the key to his box was not attached to his wrist. He mentioned this to a Chinese laborer cleaning up the place and was told to go “downstairs.” The office was downstairs. Plaintiff returned to his room and dressed, and called at the office about fifteen minutes later, explaining, that his key had disappeared and he wished the contents of his box. There he was told that the key had already been presented by someone else and the contents of the box carried away by such person. This litigation resulted. The trial court found that the defendant was guilty of gross negligence in making no inquiry as to the identity of the person presenting the key for access to box number 26, and that the defendant at that time had the means of identifying said person.

The question presented is whether or not this finding is supported by the record. We think it is. As we have stated, the defendant had placed outside the box the name of the person owning the property and the nature of that property. When the key was presented, it would have been very simple and effective to have asked the person presenting it for his name. In this case, such a precaution, probably, would have prevented the loss. The clerk who delivered the contents of the box stated that he did not ask for the man’s name, nor use any precaution to identify him; that he had no recollection even of his appearance.