BAGGAGE. Such articles of apparel, ornament, &c. as are in daily use by travel lers, for convenience, comfort, or recreation.
This term has been held to include jewelry carried as baggage, and which formed a part of female attire, the plaintiff being on a jour ney with his family. 4 Bingh. 218 ; 3 Penn. St. 451 ; Redfield, Railw. 313. A watch, carried in one's trunk, is proper baggage, 10 Ohio, 145 ; 1 Newb. Adm. 494 ; but see 9 Ilumphr. Tenn. 621 ; books for reading or amusement, 6 Ind. 242 ; a harness-maker's tools, valued at ten dollars; and a rifle. 10 How. Pract. N. Y. 330 ; Redfield, Railw. 313. From analogy to the foregoing articles, it will be obvious that the term baggage must com prehend an almost infinite number and variety of articles not enumerated here.
But it has been held not to include specie beyond what the traveller might fairly ex pect to require for his expenses and necessary purchases for himself and family, including the replenishing of the wardrobe, and calcu lating reasonably for such contingencies of sickness or accident as might fairly be considered not altogether improbable. 11 Humphr. Tenn. 419 ; 20 Mo. 513 ; 9 Wend. N.Y. 85 ; 19 id. 534; 6 Cush. Mass. 69 ; 1 Abb. Pr. N. Y. 325 ; 6 Ind. 242 ; Redfield, Railw. 313, 314.
It is well settled that merchandise which one carries in a trunk without the knowledge of the carrier is not protected as baggage, and, if lost without the express fault of the carrier, he is not liable. 9 Eng. L. & Eq. 477 ; Redfield, Railw. 313, 314; 10 Cush. Mass. 506.
But if a carrier know that merchandise is included among baggage, and do not object, he is liable to the same extent as for other goods taken in the due course of his business.
3 E. D. Smith,.N. Y. 571 ; Redfield, Railw. 313, 314. And see COMMON CARRIERS.
BAIL (Fr. Willer, to deliver).
In Practice. Those persons who become sureties for the appearance of the defendant in court.
The delivery of the defendant to persons who, in the manner prescribed by raw, be come securities for his appearance in court.
The word is used both as a substantive and a verb, though more frequently as a substantive, and in civil cases, at least, in the first sense given above.
In its more ancient signification, the word includes the delivery of property, real or personal, by one person to another. Bail in actions was first intro duced in favor of defendants, to mitigate the hard ships imposed upon them while in the custody of the sheriff under arrest, the security thus offered standing to the sheriff in the place of the body of the defendant. Taking bail was made compulsory upon the sheriffs by the statute 23 Hen. VI. e. 9, and the privilege of the defendant was rendered more valuable and secure by successive statutes, until by statute 12 Geo. I. o. 29, made perpetual by 21 Geo. II. c. 3, and 19 Geo. III. e. 70, it was provided that arrests should not. be made unless the plaintiff make affidavit as to the amount due, and this amount be indorsed on the writ; and for this sum and no more the sheriff might require bail.
In the King's Bench, bail above and below were both exacted as a condition of releasing the defend ant from the custodyin which he was held from the time of his arrest till his final discharge in the suit. In the Common Bench, however, the origin of bail above seems to have been different, as the capias on which bail might be demanded was of effect only to brihg the defendant to court, and after appear ance be was theoretically in attendance, but not in custody. The failure to file such bail as the emer gency requires, although no arrest may have been made, is, in general, equivalent to a default.
In some of the states the defendant when ar rested gives bail by bond to the sheriff, conditioned to appear and answer to the plaintiff and abide the judgment and not to avoid, which thus answers the purpose of bail above and below. 1 Mc. 336; 1 N. H. 172; 2 id. 360; 2 Mass. 484; 13 id. 94; 2 Nott do M'C. So. C. 569; 2 Hill, So. C. 336; 4 Dev. No. C. 40; 18 Ga. 314. And see 2 South. N.. J. 811. In criminal law the term ie used frequently in the second sense given, and is allowed except in cases where the defendant is charged with the commis sion of the more heinous crimes.