Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New York

If someone is holding on to an item for me and they lose it, is it their legal responsibility to compensate me for the cost of the item?


Asked on 1/14/11, 6:39 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Kevin Connolly Kevin J. Connolly

Under the law of bailments (people holding other people's property) there are three sets of rules:

If the bailment is solely for the benefit of the bailee--the person who has the item--the bailee must exercise the highest degree of care. If I borrow your hose to water my garden and it's damaged by a tool, I pay for it unless I can show that I took extraordinarily-good care of the hose. (If I took it without permission, I am responsible even though I took all possible care: I am a trespasser and strictly liable for the results of my wrongdoing in taking the hose in the first place.)

If the bailment is solely for the benefit of the bailor--the owner--then the bailee owes only slight care, essentially a duty to refrain from damaging it wilfully or throwing it away. If I am broadsided by a truck while driving and my car ends up on your lawn while I am taken to the hospital, you are an involuntary bailee--a kind of bailment solely for my benefit, and you owe only the slightest care toward my car until the police tow it away.

A bailment for mutual benefit calls for the bailee to exercise ordinary care, i.e., to refrain from begligence. This is the standard for a garagekeeper who stores cars, whether or not he performs work on them.

Now which of these patterns do you fit into?

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Answered on 1/22/11, 10:51 am


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