Clark v. Burns
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Contract, for the value of a watch, against the owners of a steamship as common carriers, with counts in tort for negligence, and also counts charging them as innkeepers.
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Contract, for the value of a watch, against the owners of a steamship as common carriers, with counts in tort for negligence, and also counts charging them as innkeepers. The case was submitted to the Superior Court on an agreed statement of facts in substance as follows: The defendants are the owners of the Cunard line of steamers, so called, which run between Boston and Liverpool, and New York and Liverpool, and are common carriers of passengers and freight between those places. On November 28, 1871, the plaintiff left Liverpool on board the steamship Calabria, one of the Cunard line, for…
1Opinion of the CourtGray, C. J.
The liabilities of common carriers and innkeepers, though similar, are distinct. No one is subject to both liabilities at the same time, and with regard to the same property. The liability of an innkeeper extends only to goods put in his charge as keeper of a public house, and does not attach to a carrier who has no house and is engaged only in the business of transportation. The defendants, as owners of steamboats carrying passengers and goods for hire, were not innkeepers. They would be subject to the liability of common carriers for the baggage of passengers in their custody, and might…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Steamboat Crystal Palace v. VanderpoolCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1855
- Fox v. Adams Express Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1874
3Cited by8 opinions
- Kinsley v. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1878
- Whicher v. Boston & Albany RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1900
- Whitney v. Pullman's Palace Car Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1887
- Cook v. KaneOregon Supreme Court · 1886
- Clark v. Checker Taxi Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1953
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