Maltby v. Chapman

Cochran, J., delivered the opinion of this Court. The subject of an inn-keeper’s liability at common law, ³¹⁶ for losses sustained by a guest, was considered in Pettigrew vs. Barnum, 11 Md. Rep., 434 , and upon the principles there enunciated, it is very clear that the appellant became liable for the loss complained of, if not protected by the 5th and 6th sections of Art. 70 of the Code. These sections provide a mode by which an inn-keeper, under the circumstances therein mentioned, may protect himself from liability to his guest for losses of money, plate and jewelry, but not for other kinds of property. The evidence here shows that the articles stolen from the room of the appellee, while a guest of the appellant, were a watch, watch-guard, pocketbook, and ninety dollars in money; and looking to the purpose and terms of these provisions of the Code, it is manifest that a compliance with them could not relieve the •appellant from liability for the loss thus shown.

All of these articles, with the exception of the money, were of a class not within the statutory provisions referred to, and the appellant could not, even by complying with their requirements, exempt himself from liability for their loss. The prayer offered on his behalf asserts a proposition altogether inconsistent with this limitation of his statutory privilege, and was properly rejected for that reason. The ease appears to have been submitted to the jury under an instruction wholly free from objection.