The plaintiff, a job master, for several years let carriages and Horses to the defendant by the year and let to the defendant a pair of horses, which were quiet in harness and satisfactory to the defendant’s coachman and stop the horses were kept in the stables and joining news, and while being groomed in the mews one of them bolted and was injured. In an injunction by the job master for damages, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff.
Held: 1) it was incumbent on the defendant to prove that he exercised reasonable care in the keeping of the horses, and whether he had done so or not was a question of fact for the jury; 2) there were not sufficient grounds for disturbing the verdict at which the jury had arrived.
In a contract for hiring there is an obligation upon the hirer to restore the chattel at the end of the bailment in as good condition as he received it, or, if he cannot do that, to show that he exercised reasonable care in the keeping of the chattel.
Lord Loreburn said that once damage was ascertained on outturn: ‘I cannot think it is good law that in such circumstances he should be permitted to saddle upon the parties who have not broken their contract the duty of explaining how things went wrong. It is for him to explain the loss himself, and if he cannot satisfy the court that it occurred from some cause independent of his own wrong-doing he must make that loss good.’
Lord Halsbury said: ‘It appears to me that here there was a bailment made to a particular person, a bailment for hire and reward, and the bailee was bound to shew that he took reasonable and proper care for the due security and proper delivery of that bailment; the proof of that rested upon him.’
Lord Loreburn, Lord Halsbury
Times 19 May 1905
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Joseph Travers and Sons Ltd v Cooper CA 1915
Goods were loaded onto a barge from a ship for delivery at the barge owners wharf in the Thames under a contract, which exempted the barge owner from liability ‘for any damage to goods how’s the weather caused which can be covered by insurance.’ . .
Cited – Volcafe Ltd and Others v Compania Sud Americana De Vapores Sa SC 5-Dec-2018
The claimant appellants, arranged shipment of bagged Colombian green coffee beans, stowed in 20 unventilated 20-foot containers from Panama to Rotterdam, Hamburg or Bremerhaven for on carriage to Bremen. The bill of lading for each consignment . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Transport
Updated: 30 November 2021; Ref: scu.670128