387.3-powerpoints session 02

Chapter 2: Legal Aspects of Loss Prevention

Security and Loss Prevention Management PowerPoint

1. Describe the American legal system and define basic legal terms.2. Summarize the meaning of reasonable care, describe how a hotel’s

duty to exercise reasonable care may not be delegated, and cite cases illustrating the reasonable care rule.

3. Explain how a hotel might be held liable for the acts of its employees.

4. Explain how the hotel might be held liable for injuries a guest receives at the hands of other guests, patrons, or third parties.

5. Identify steps a hotel must take to limit its liability for loss of guest valuables, and cite cases illustrating a hotel’s liability for guests’ property.

Competencies for Legal Aspects of Loss Prevention

1a



Explain how a hotel can limit its liability for loss of a guest’s personal property other than valuables, and describe a hotel’s liability if guest property disappears from a guest’s room, hallways of the hotel, the hotel lobby, checkrooms, baggage rooms, and storerooms, or is lost by fire.

Competencies for Legal Aspects of Loss Prevention

1b

Continued from previous slide…

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Describe a hotel’s liability with regard to unclaimed property, and summarize a hotel’s liability for handling guests’ mail.Describe a hotel’s liability for automobiles belonging to guests and explain the theory of bailment.Describe a hotel’s liability for loss of a non-guest’s property.



American Legal System

• Every state has its own statutes and court rulings on innkeeper laws

• Common law; federal, state, and municipal statutes; 94 district courts, a court of appeals for each of the 13 judicial circuits, the Supreme Court

• The law is a continually changing body of rules

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Basic Legal Terms

• Reasonable care• Foreseeability• Proximate (legal) cause• Negligence• Damages (compensatory, punitive)• Trial court• Plaintiff• Defendant

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Continued from previous slide…American Legal System

• Summary judgment• Directed verdict• Judgment n.o.v. (notwithstanding the verdict)• Verdict• Appellant• Appellee• Respondent

3b



Hotels and Reasonable Care

• Hotels are not insurers of guests’ personal safety• The hotelkeeper must exercise reasonable care to prevent injury

to a guest• The hotel is generally not held liable for acts that it could not

reasonably foresee

4a



Continued from previous slide…Hotels and Reasonable Care

• The hotel may not delegate its duty to exercise reasonable care in order to relieve it from liability

• A hotel’s liability when a guest is injured in a hotel’s recreational facilities depends on the guests’ own negligence—whether or not the guest exercised reasonable care

• Laws have been enacted to protect ski area operators, establishing that persons participating in the sport assume the inherent risks and dangers of the sport

4b



Hotels and the Respondeat Superior Doctrine

• A hotel employer may be held liable for the acts of his/her employee acting within the course of employment

• Under the respondeat superior doctrine, the act of the employee becomes the act of the employer

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Hotels and Guest Injuries

• A hotel may be held liable for injuries received by a guest that were reasonably foreseeable and that might have been prevented through the exercise of reasonable care

• Poor lighting, inadequate security, and knowledge of previous criminal acts may lead to a hotel’s liability

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Hotels and Guest Valuables

• The hotel is considered practically an insurer and held strictly liable for loss of a guest’s property unless the loss is caused by a guest’s negligence, an act of God, or an act of a common enemy

• Common law liability for full value exists unless modified by state statutes

• The hotel must provide a safe or safe-deposit boxes in the hotel office or some other convenient place

• The hotel must post notices to its guests regarding the existence of the safe or safe-deposit boxes

• These notices must be posted in public areas

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• Limiting liability: the hotel must post applicable statutes in “a public and conspicuous place”; limits of liability vary depending on the nature of the property lost and the general location where the property was lost

• Property in guestrooms: hotel is not liable for personal property in excess of $500; if the guest can prove the hotel’s negligence resulted in the loss, the $500 limitation may not be binding

• Property in checkrooms: hotel is liable for varying recovery limits depending on whether fees are charged for the checkroom services

8a

Hotel Liability for the Personal Property of Guests



Continued from previous slide…

• Property in baggage rooms/storerooms: hotel is liable for losses from baggage and storerooms to a maximum of $100 unless the guest obtains a written receipt from the hotel agreeing the value is in excess of $100

• Losses by fire: the hotel will be freed from liability if the hotel can prove that the fire occurred without any fault or negligence of the hotel

8b

Hotel Liability for the Personal Property of Guests



Hotels and Unclaimed Guest Property

• Unclaimed guest baggage or other property in custody for six months may be sold at public auction

• Hotel must be certain that no agreement was made to hold the property for a period of time

• The statutory procedure for a sale must be strictly followed• The simpler course is to turn over all lost or mislaid property to

the police

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Hotel Liability for Handling Guest Mail

• If a hotel accepts delivery of guest mail, it may be liable for negligence for any failure to deliver such mail to guests

• The hotel may have to assume specific contractual liability for registered mail under its agreement with the post office

• The hotel may make a special agreement to hold mail for guests

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Hotel Liability for Guest Automobiles

• Where the hotel has been entrusted with guests’ automobiles, it may be liable for loss or damage

• The scope of the hotel’s duty varies from state to state• Under the Common Law rule, hotels are liable as insurers for

guests’ property that is on the hotel premises

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Theory of Bailment

Theory of bailment: the delivery of personal property for some particular purpose, or on mere deposit, upon a contract, express or implied, that after purpose has been fulfilled it shall be redelivered to the person who delivered it

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Hotel Liability for the Loss of a Non-Guest’s Property

• When the hotel agrees to accept the non-guest’s property for safekeeping, the hotel is legally a bailee and is generally bound by the applicable legal standard of care

• The owner of the property is legally liable for any loss of the property unless there is a bailment

• Actual custody: if a hotel employee takes possession of the property

• Constructive custody: if the property is brought upon the premises with the hotel’s consent

13a



Continued from previous slide…Hotel Liability for the Loss of a Non-Guest’s Property

• In the event of a suit against a hotel as bailee, the hotel has the burden of proof to show that it complied with the required standard of care

• The degree of care required may vary depending on the state law governing the hotel

• The negligence of the property owner may be asserted by the hotel to reduce or eliminate its liability

13b

387.3-powerpoints session 02

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