Fast Bearing Co. v. Koppers Co.

JOHNSON, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Baltimore City in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $655 and costs in an action for the rental value of machinery, tried by the court. The appellant had claimed $1,425, or a rental of $15 per day for ninety-five days. On June 5, 1941, appellant leased an Excello boring machine at $15 per day, reserving the right to cancel the lease on twenty-four hours’ notice.

Appellee, having possession of the machine, used it twenty-four hours daily until July 1, 1941, when it wrote appellant that it considered $15 per day as high and offered $110 per month. This sum appellant refused, calling attention to the fact that the machine had been used under a specific rental charge and notified appellant of the termination of the lease. But appellee failed to return the machine, retained possession and continued to use it twenty-four hours per day up to and including September 8,1941. Appellant elected not to treat this as a conversion but as a continuation of the original agreement and brought this suit.

The court allowed $15 per day for twenty-five days and $4 per day for seventy days. Appellee has not appealed. The question is whether the trial court was in error in allowing only $4 per day for seventy days, ²⁰⁵ thus reducing the claim to a quantum meruit. In this holding we think the trial court was in error, since in our opinion a bailee, the bailment having ended, who continues to