THE EARLY LIABILITY OF A BAILEE

Authors

Norman F. Arterburn, Washburn College

Abstract

All discussion of the origin of the absolute liability of a common carrier of goods naturally harks back to the earliest conception of a bailment and its related remedies. We have had two diametrically opposed views urged as to the first liability of the ordinary bailee. Justice Holmes and numerous other authorities take the view that the liability in the' first instance was absolute in the case of all bailees. Professor Beale is the exponent of the opposing view, that such liability was qualified to such an extent that it amounted in fact, only to negligence liability. An interpretation of these early cases may be made, I think, which will bring into closer harmony the two apparently opposite views of the rules of law which might have existed before the famous cases of Coggs v. Bernard and Foward v. Pittard.

Recommended Citation

Norman F. Arterburn, THE EARLY LIABILITY OF A BAILEE, 25 Mich. L. Rev. 479 (1927).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol25/iss5/2