Innkeeper Rules Essay

Just for a moment, imagine you have been riding your trusty steed for hours, you are tired and just a bit saddle sore. As the sun begins to set over the horizon you come upon a small inn. A hot meal and a soft place to lie down is the perfect solution. While staying at a roadside inn could be as dangerous as roughing it, who knows what a malicious innkeeper could be up to once you have fallen fast asleep. Although this scenario takes us back in time, guests still have certain hopes when staying at hotels and they need to be protected from crooked hotel operators. This is why we still have innkeeper laws on the books today, still mostly based off of English common law.
Special common laws were developed specifically regarding the rights …show more content…
For instance, an innkeeper had the right to set reasonable rules for their establishment which were required to be in full view of the guest preferably upon arrival. Secondly, an innkeeper had a right to lien. This meant the innkeeper could exercise a lien over the guests’ property and goods if they fail to pay their account. Lastly an innkeeper has the right to act as a bailee. Simply put, if the guest, the bailor, borrows something from the innkeeper, the bailee, there is a reasonable expectation the goods will be returned to the person depositing …show more content…
A body of law, common law, laws common and applicable to an Englishmen. These common laws were used to resolve disagreements between individuals by applying established rules and principles of justice using previously decided cases (Jefferies & Brown, 2010). Before the revolution, colonies had a complete and sometimes rather strict statutory code (Carlson, 2007). As society developed, individual American states adopted varying forms of common law principles. A common law system is a legal system that follows the rules and principles set in previous cases. The United States, England, and other territories presently use this legal