INMAN. JOHN O'BRIEN, son of Henry, an artist. From the west, where lie had gained a reputation as a portrait painter, be came to New York and opened a studio. His flower-pieces and genre pictures have been much admired, and found a ready sale. He went to Italy in 1866.
INN (ancient Genus), a river of Germany, the most important Alpine affluent of the Danube, rises in the s. of the Swiss canton of Grisons, at a height of 4,293 ft. above sea level, and flowing n.e. through that canton forms the valley of the Engadine. It main tains generally a n.e. course to its junction with the Danube. Leaving Switzerland, it enters the Austrian dominions at the village of Finstermfinz, flows through the crown land of Tyrol, and crosses the s.e. angle of Bavaria, after which, forming the boundary between Bavaria and upper Austria, it enters the Danube at Passau, after a conrse•of 285 miles. Its principal affluent is the Salza from the south. It is regularly navigablo from the town of Hall, 8 m. below Innsbruck. At its junction with the Danube the Inn is broader than the Danube itself.
(see IloTEL). In point of law, an inn is merely a house of enter tainment for travelers, which any p"rson may set up without license like any other trade. It is when excisable liquors are sold that a license is required. Public-houses and ale houses are, however, synonymous terms with inns, for the invariably Ends it expedient to obtain the necessary license to sell As to these licenses, see BEER ACTS and Punurc-nousEs. The rights and duties of innkeepers irrespective of the license will here be noticed. It may be observed. in the first place, that though public-houses are always inns, yet beer-houses are not so, the latter being merely shops for selling beer and a few other liquors, the d:stinguishing characteristic of the public-house being, that refreshment as well as lodging may be had on the prem ises by all comers. Taverns are chiefly places for the sale of wines and- liquors; victualing-houses, for the sale of victuals; coffee-houses and hotels are also varieties, all of which may or may not be inns, according as they do or do not hold themselves out to give meat, drink, and lodgings to all travelers; and it is not at all necessary that any sign-board be put up to distinguish the inn.
One of the incidents of an innkeeper is that he is bound to open his house to all travelers without distinction, and has no option to refuse such refreshment, shelter, and accommodation as he possesses, provided the person who applies is of the description of a traveler, and able and ready to pay the customary hire, and is not drunk or dis orderly, or tainted with infectious disease. He is, of course, bound only to give such accommodation as he has. If the traveler has a horse and luggage, the innkeeper is bound to receive these also, if he has accommodation, provided the traveler himself intends to lodge there as a guest.. But the traveler is not entitled to select whatever
room he pleases, and if he will not accept such reasonable accommodation as is offered, the innkeeper can order him to leave the house. As some compensation for this com pulsory hospitality, the innkeeper is allowed certain prisileges; thus, lie has a lien on the horse and carriage or goods of the guest for that part of the bill or reckoning applicable to each respectively—i.e., he can keep these until he is paid for the keep. even though they are not the property of the guest. But he cannot detain the person of his guest until payment is made, for, if so, a man might be imprisoned for life with out any legal process or adjudication. While, however, an innkeeper has this remedy for his score, he is also liable to great responsibility for the safety of his guests and their goods. By the Roman law, under the edict necks, caupoaes, stabularii, he was bound to restore• safely whatever goods of iris guests were intrusted to him, unless some damnum fatale, or some act of God. prevented his doing so. This rule has been adopted by the law of England. Hence, if the guest be robbed of his goods at the inn, the innkeeper is liable, unless the robbery was caused by the guest's servant or companion, or by his own gross negligence, as, for example, by leaving a box containing money in the commercial room, after exposing its contents to the bystanders. So the innkeeper will be excused if the guest took upon himself the charge of his own goods, yet the guest does not take that charge by merely accepting from the landlord the key of the room, though that may be an element in the question. A guest who takes all reasonable precaution—as, for example, locking his room-door—and is yet robbed, has therefore a good claim on the landlord for indemnity; and. the landlord will not escape liability by putting up a notice iu his rooms that he will not be answerable for such losses, other .wise guests would have no protection, for they are very much at the mercy of the keepers of such houses. It has been attempted to extend the common-law liability of innkeepers for the safety of the goods of their guests to ordinary lodging-house keepers, but the courts have held that an ordinary boarding-house keeper or lodging-house keeper is only responsible for ordinary care, i.e., such care as he lakes of his own goods. He must, it is true, be careful in selecting his servants, but he is not bound absolutely to return the goods safe merely because they were in his house along with the lodger.
In Scotland the Roman rule of law as to the responsibility of innkeepers for the safety of the guest's goods has been also adopted, and the other heads of law are sub stantially the same as in England, except that no indictment would lie in Scotland against an innkeeper for refusing a guest: But the substantial remedies are the same.