Fay v. Pacific Improvement Co.

The Court. Upon further consideration of this cause, after hearing in Bank, we are satisfied with the conclusion reached in Department, and with the opinion there rendered, and for the reasons stated in said opinion, the judgment and order appealed from are affirmed.

Beatty, C. J., and Paterson, J., dissented.

The following is the opinion of Department Two, above referred to, rendered on the 23d of June, 1891: —

De Haven, J. The plaintiff recovered judgment against the defendant for damages occasioned by the loss of her jewelry, wearing apparel, and other articles of personal property needed for her personal use consumed [259]by fire at the burning of the Hotel Del Monte, April 1, 1887, of which the defendant was at that time the proprietor.

The court below found that the Hotel Del Monte was, at the date named, a public inn, and that plaintiff was a guest therein. On this appeal the defendant claims that the evidence does not sustain these findings; and also that the burning of the hotel was an irresistible superhuman cause, for which it is not liable, and that it is not, in any event, liable for plaintiff’s diamonds and other jewelry, because not deposited in defendant’s safe.

1. An inn is a house which is held out to the public as a place where all transient persons who come will be received and entertained as guests for compensation, •— a hotel. In Wintermute v. Clark, 5 Sand. 247, an inn is defined as a public house of entertainment for all who choose to visit it, and this definition was quoted with approval by this court in Pinkerton v. Woodward, 33 Cal. 596. The fact that the house is open for the public, that those who patronize it come to it upon the invitation which is extended to the general public, and without any previous agreement for accommodation or agreement as to the duration of their stay, marks the important distinction between a hotel or inn and a boardinghouse. This difference is thus stated in Schouler on Bailments: “ An inn is a house where a keeper holds himself out as ready to receive all who may choose to resort thither and pay an adequate price for the entertainment; while the keeper of a boarding-house reserves the choice of comers and the terms of accommodation, contracting specially with each customer, and most commonly arranging for long periods and a definite abode.” (Schouler on Bailments, 253.)