BAILEE. Contracts. One to whom goods are bailed; the party to whom per sonal property is delivered under a contract of bailment.
2. His duties are to act in good faith, and perform his undertaking, in respect to the property intrusted to him, with the diligence and care required by the nature of his en gagement.
When the bailee alone receives benefit from the bailment, as where he borrows goods or chattels for use, he is bound to exercise ex traordinary care and diligence in preserving them from loss or injury. Story, Bailm. 237; Edwards, Bailm. 164.
When the bailment is mutually beneficial to the parties, as where goods or chattels are hired or pledged to secure a debt, the bailee is bound to exercise ordinary diligence in preserving the property. Edwards, Bailm. 223, 312 ; Story, Bailm. a 398, 399.
3. When the bailee receives no benefit from the bailment, as where he accepts goods, chattels, or money to keep without recom pense, or undertakes gratuitously the per formance of some commission in regard to them, he is answerable only for the use of the ordinary care which he bestows upon his own property of a similar nature. Edwards, Bailm. 102-108; Story, Bailm. a 65– 67, 174-186.
The bailee is bound to redeliver or return the property, according to the nature of his engagement, as soon as the purpose for which it was bailed shall have been accomplished.
He cannot dispute his bailor's title. Ed wards, Bailm. 288, 289, 305, 535.
4. The bailee has a special property in the goods or chattels intrusted to him, sufficient to enable him to defend them by suit against all persons but the rightful owner. The de positary and mandatary acting gratuitously, and the finder of lost property, have this right. Edwards, Bailm. 55, 57, 61.
A bailee with a mere naked authority, having a right to remuneration for his trouble, but coupled with no other interest, may sup port trespass for any injury amounting to a trespass done while he was in the actual pos session of the thing. 4 Bouvier, Inst. n. 3608.
5. In bailments which are beneficial to both of the parties to the contract, the bailee has a right to retain the thing bailed until the object of the bailment has been accom plished. Id. 201, 309, 310, 355.
A bailee for work, labor, and services, such as a mechanic or artisan who receives chat tels or materials to be repaired or manufac tured, has a lien upon the property for his services. Id. 353-355. Other bailees, inn keepers, common carriers, and warehouse men, also, have a lien for their charges. Id. 307-309, 411-414, 547-552.