Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Theft

You posted this question in the Michigan "criminal law" section, but your question concerns potential civil liability to you for the theft. You should re-post the question in a different section of Lawguru.com where the attorneys signed up to answer questions hold themselves out as knowedgable in that area/specialty.

I'm not a civil law expert, so this is just a guess to answer your question:

Most hotels will have a sign or something on your registration paperwork that says that they are not to be held liable for anything stolen from your vehicle or room. ("CYA" is always a good move for businesses.) Even if that is not the case, the only way to make the hotel civilly liable is if they (1) had a legal duty to protect your property in their parking lot and (2) breached that duty. There is no common law duty for a business to ensure the safety of their guests' personal property ... especially property that the guests leave in an open parking lot at night, and where the guests (not the hotel) have the ability to protect with locks, alarms, etc. About the only way a hotel would have that legal duty is if they say that they ARE securing your property (e.g., behind a locked fence, or with roving security patrols, etc.). Another thought: if there'd been a rash of B&Es of guests' vehicles/trailers and the hotel failed to warn you about it, that might (miiiiiight) create a duty-to-warn, but that's a stretch.

Beyond that, you are looking for a scapegoat to cover your loss that you could have done a better job protecting against with better locks or alarms ... and insurance.

Re: Theft

It is extremely unlikely that the hotel would be responsible for the loss. You would have to demonstrate that they were somehow negligent, which, based on the facts, seems unikely.