BAILMENT. A delivery of something of a personal nature by one party to another, to be held according to the purpose or object of the delivery, and to be returned or deliv ered over when that purpose is accomplished. Prof. Joel Parker, MS. Lect. Harvard Law School, 1851.
The right to bold may terminate, and a duty of restoration may arise, before the accomplishment of the purpoee ; but that does not necessarily enter into the definition, because such duty of restoration was not the original purpose of the delivery, but arises upon a subsequent contingency. The party delivering the thing is called the bailor; the party receiving it, the bailee.
Various attempts have been made to give a pre cise definition of this term, upon some of which there have been elaborate criticisms, see Story, Haulm. 4th ed. § 2, n. 1, exemplifying the maxim, Ornnia deAnitio in lege perieuZosa eat; but the one above given ie concise, and sufficient for a general definition.
Some other definitions are here given as illus trating the elements considered necessary 'to a bail ment by the different authors cited.
A delivery of a thing in trust for some special ob ject or purpose, and upon a contract, express or implied, to conform to the object or purpose of the trust. Story, Bailm. § 2. See Merlin, Revert. Bail. A delivery of goods in trust upon a contract, ei ther expressed or implied, that the trust shall be faithfully executed on the part of the bailee. 2 Bla. Com. 451. See id. 395.
A delivery of goods in trust upon a contract, ex pressed or implied, that the trust shall be duly exe cuted, and the goods restored by the bailee as soon as the purposes of the bailment shall be answered. 2 Kent 559.
A delivery of goods on a condition, express or im plied, that they shall be restored by the bailee to the bailor, or according to his directions, as soon as the purpose for ,which they are bailed shall be an swered. Jones, Bailm. 1.
A delivery of kOods in trust on a contract, either expressed or implied, that the trust shall be duly executed, and the goods redelivered as soon as the time or use for which they were bailed shall have elapsed or be performed. Jones, Bailm. 117.
According to Story, the contract does not neces sarily imply an undertaking to redeliver the goods; and the first definition of Jones here given would seem to allow of a similar conclusion. On the other hand, Blackstone, although his definition does not include the return, speaks of it in all his examples of bailments as a duty of the bailee ; and Kent says that the application of the term to cases in which no return or delivery or redelivery to the owner or his agent is contemplated, is extending the defini tion of the term beyond its ordinary acceptation in the English law. A consignment to a factor would be a bailment for sale, according to Story ; while according to Kent it would not be included under the term bailment.
Sir William Jones has divided bailments into five sorts, namely: depositum, or de posit ; inanidatum, or commission without rec ompense; commodatum, or loan for use with out pay ; pignus, or pawn; location, or hiring, which is always with reward. This last is subdivided into locatio rei, or hiring, by which the hirer gains a temporary use of the thing ; locatio operis faciendi, when some thing is to be done to the thing delivered ; locatio operis mercium vehendarum, when the thing is merely to be carried from one place to another. Jones, Bailm. 36. See these several titles.
A better general division, however, for practical purposes, is into three kinds. First. those bailments which are for the benefit of the bailor, or of some person whom he repre sents. Second, those for the benefit of the bailee, or some person represented by him. Third, those which are for the benefit of both parties.
A radical distinction between a bailment and a chattel mortgage is that, by a mort gage, the title is transferred to the mort gagee, subject to be revested by performance of the condition, but, in case of a bailment, the bailor retains the title and parts with the possession for a special purpose ; Walker v. Staples, 5 Allen (Mass.) 34. See MORTGAGE.