4. Extraordinary goods are en trusted by a guest in a hotel to the care of the pro prietor, and when goods are delivered to a common carrier for transportation, the liability of the hotel proprietor and of the carrier as bailees is greater than that imposed upon the ordinary bailee. These will be considered more particularly later.
.3. Contract of persons capable of making a contract of bailment are those who have the usual capacity to contract. Thus an infant could not be a party to a bailment, unless it is a necessity.
If the contract is not in express terms, an implied contract will be sought in the presumed intention of the parties as disclosed by their acts and deeds, and by the surrounding circumstances. Thus, it may be clear from the surrounding circumstances that a given bailment is not gratuitous, but was entered into by the bailee in the expectation of a reward.
6. Use and care of bailed law, a bailee mast giveireasonable care to the thing entrusted to him. When there is an express contract, how ever, which defines the use and care which the bailee is to make or give, he will be bound strictly by the con tract. If he fails in this respect and causes loss or damage, be will be liable in an action for damages for breach of contract. If he goes further, and acts as tho he owned the thing entrusted to him, he may be guilty of conversion.
7. Obligations of bailor in a bailment for his sole bailor, when the bailment has been made for his sole benefit, must recoup the bailee for what he may have spent in the preservation of the thing, the expense so incurred being regarded as an extraordinary and necessary expense, urgent in its na ture. The bailor must also notify the bailee of any defect in the thing which may cause in jury. He must notify the bailee of unapparent risks. Thus, if A requests B to take care of a parcel for him, and B accidentally drops it and the contents of the parcel explode, A will be liable for damages, unless he noti fied B of the dangerous qualities of the contents of the parcel; and if B undertakes to care for A's horse for a month while A is away and to charge nothing for his trouble, B will be entitled to reimbursement for the extraordinary expense which he may be put to if the horse becomes ill and a veterinary surgeon has to be called in.
8. Obligations of bailee in a bailment for the sole benefit of the bailor.—We will suppose that A has
gratuitously undertaken to keep certain goods en trusted to him by B. A must exercise reasonable care and diligence in keeping the goods. By reasonable care and diligence is meant such care and diligence as a person would ordinarily use in connection with his own property, and such skill as he is possessed of. In other words, he is bound to take such care as a rea sonable, prudent and careful man might fairly be ex pected to take of his own property. Generally speak ing, the bailee will not be answerable except for gross negligence, unless he is in bad faith.
Gross negligence might consist in the failure to ex ercise reasonable care, skill and diligence, or in the ab sence of ordinary care, or in the failure to perform an undertaken duty. If B allows A to place an automo bile in his stable for the winter, B will not be responsi ble if A has left water in the cooling apparatus, which freezes and cracks part of the machinery; but B must not use the automobile, as to do so would be contrary to the spirit of the bailment, and if he used it and damage resulted he would be responsible. B would be liable for gross negligence if he were to leave the automobile outside the stable overnight and it were stolen.
The bailor must return the thing, with any profit or increase derived from it. Thus if B agrees to care for and pasture A's cow, and during the period of the bailment a calf is born, B must hand back at the ex piration of the bailment both the cow and the calf.
9. Bailment for the sole benefit of the will suppose that the bailee is a person who has bor rowed an automobile. In this case the bailee will be held to exercise greater care than in other cases of bailment. As we have seen, if the bailment is for the sole benefit of the bailor, the bailee is held only for reasonable care and diligence. In the present case, however, he must exercise great care. Great care would be that care which a very cautious and vigilant man would take of his own property. The borrower in such a case will he liable for the least neglect. Thus, if B borrows A's automobile, and upon going to his garage B finds that there is not room for it, B will be bound to remove his own automobile to make room for A's, unless he can store A's automobile in some other place.