Greer v. Los Angeles Athletic Club

258 P. 155, 84 Cal. App. 272, 1927 Cal. App. LEXIS 247
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 30, 1927
DocketDocket No. 4480.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 258 P. 155 (Greer v. Los Angeles Athletic Club) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greer v. Los Angeles Athletic Club, 258 P. 155, 84 Cal. App. 272, 1927 Cal. App. LEXIS 247 (Cal. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

MURPHEY, J., pro tem.

This is an appeal by the Los Angeles Athletic Club from a judgment in favor of the plaintiff in an action for damages for failure to return to plaintiff a package deposited with the defendant. Judgment was for the sum of $1,253.83, with interest at seven per cent per annum. The defendant is a social organization used by the members and their guests. In addition to the *274 ordinary facilities furnished by it, the club maintained sleeping rooms which were rented to members of the club, for which a consideration in addition to the regular dues of the club was required. The plaintiff was a member in good standing in the club and had resided in one of the rooms of the club from the early part of 1919 until after the incident resulting in this litigation. Defendant also kept a fireproof safe in the clerk’s office on the main floor for the safekeeping of packages deposited therein by lodgers or other members of the club for which no special charge was made.

The court found in favor of the plaintiff and bases its conclusion in that regard upon: (1) The fact that the defendant was a lodging-house keeper, and (2) that in accepting the package to be deposited in its safe, it i^as a bailee for hire. The appellant contends that the judgment should be reversed primarily upon two specifications: (1) That appellant as a lodging-house keeper was not liable for more that $250, not conceding, however, that it was liable for anything; (2) if it was a bailee for hire the liability would be limited to the amount the defendant was. informed by the depositor was contained in the deposit package or what it had reason to suppose the deposit to be worth, and that in no event could the liability exceed the sum of $250.

Taken in the order in which they have been above named, the defendant contends that since the relationship between the plaintiff and defendant was that of lodger and lodging-house keeper, and since the defendant kept a fireproof safe and gave notice to plaintiff, as contemplated in section 1860 of the Civil Code, it follows that the liability of the defendant, if any, is governed by that section which provides: “If an innkeeper, hotel keeper, boarding-house or lodging-house keeper, keeps a fireproof safe and gives notice to a guest, boarder or lodger, either personally or by putting up a printed notice in a prominent place in the office or the room occupied by the guest, boarder or lodger, that he keeps such a safe will not be liable for money, jewelry, documents, furs, fur coats and fur garments, or other articles of unusual value and small compass, unless placed therein, he is not liable, except so far as his own acts shall contribute thereto, for any loss of or injury to such articles, if not deposited with him to be placed therein, nor in any case *275 for more than the snm of two hundred and fifty dollars for any or all such property of any individual guest, hoarder or lodger, unless he shall have given a receipt in writing therefor to such guest, boarder Or lodger.” Appellant insists that no receipt was given to respondent.

Many eases, and definitions by text-writers and lexicographers, are cited to determine the meaning of the word “receipt,” as used in the foregoing section of the code, all of which in our judgment are fully answered and disposed of by supplementing the detached portion of the package envelope hereinafter referred to, with the printed matter remaining on said envelope and being part thereof, printed on the body thereof in the words following: “Directions for using this envelope. After the depositor has placed his money or valuables in the envelope and sealed it, have him sign his name in full on check A, and then tear off and give him check B, to keep as a receipt. When he calls for his deposit, cause him to put his signature on check B, and then compare it with that on cheek A; if the result is satisfactory, deliver the envelope, and date and file the two checks as receipts.” The portion of the paper referred to above was delivered' to the defendant at the time of making his deposit and was in words and figures as follows: “Check B. Date ........ 192..... Los Angeles Athletic Club. No. 304. Los Angeles, Calif. Depositor is to sign here only when he withdraws his deposit. . . . Deliverable to the owner only.” The evidence shows that, at the time the plaintiff deposited his package with one of the clerks in the office of the defendant there was delivered to him the above slip of paper which was detached from the envelope into which the deposit was placed.

Section 1962 of the Code of Civil Procedure, subdivision 3, reads as follows: “The following presumptions, and no others, are deemed conclusive: ... 3. Whenever a party has, by his own declaration, act, or omission, intentionally and deliberately led another to believe a particular thing true, and to act upon such belief, he cannot, in any litigation arising out of such declaration, act, or omission, be permitted to falsify it.” This writing was regarded and considered as a receipt by all parties to the action. The directors evidently so considered it when they authorized and *276 directed the preparation of the envelope to be used by persons depositing money or valuables in its safe. The plaintiff and the employees of the club constantly in their testimony referred to the writing as a receipt. The portion of the envelope taken by the defendant bore a duplicate number corresponding to the number on the portion of the deposit envelope retained by the officers of the club, and when returned, signed, and dated by the depositor entitled him to the envelope and its contents. Nothing on the envelope requires the depositor to state the amount of money or the value and character of valuables, if such there were. This presumably was the intention of the officers of the club and it was probably their purpose for good reasons, not to have disclosed to its employees the amount or value of the contents of these deposit packages. They evidently regarded it as unnecessary and probably concluded that it would avoid temptation. Certainly, it would have served no good purpose to have disclosed to the clerk or clerks at the desk the contents and value of packages as it is not disclosed in the record that they or any of them were or was clothed with any discretionary powers to refuse a package because in amount or value it was in excess of any stipulated limitation, and it cannot fairly be said, and the record does not disclose the fact to be, that such information had it been given would have caused the employees or officers of the club to exercise any greater degree of care in its safekeeping. The receipt as given was such as a matter of law. A receipt in its common use is nothing more than a bare acknowledgment of having received something. In the case of California Packers Co. v. Merritt Fruit Co., 6 Cal. App. 507, 510 [92 Pac. 509], this court says: “It was to defendant a mere receipt for money. The fact that it stated that the money received was in full of all claims and demands must be held to mean the claims and demands for which the money was given in satisfaction. A receipt may always be explained, and even the amount' of money stated in the receipt to have been paid may be shown by parol evidence to have been a different sum.

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Bluebook (online)
258 P. 155, 84 Cal. App. 272, 1927 Cal. App. LEXIS 247, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greer-v-los-angeles-athletic-club-calctapp-1927.