130 W. Va. 297 - Shifflette v. Lilly’s Empirical Analysis
1947
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 38 later decisions — most recently November 2017 · most notably 162 W. Va. 857 - Morningstar v. Black & Decker Manufacturing Co. (1979), 159 W. Va. 14 - Fruehauf Corp. v. Huntington Moving & Storage Co. (1975)
3 federal appellate · 32 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Shiman Bros. & Co. v. Nebraska National Hotel Co. · Stoll v. Almon C. Judd Co. · 103 W. Va. 519 - McVey v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. · Blaine v. C. & O. R. R. · 78 W. Va. 785 - Holt v. Otis Elevator Co.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It shall be the duty of the keepers of hotels and restaurants to exercise due care and diligence in providing honest servants and employees, and to take every reasonable precaution to protect the persons and property of their guests and boarders, but no such keeper of any hotel or restaurant shall be held liable in a greater sum than two hundred and fifty dollars for the loss of any wearing apparel, baggage or other property, not hereinafter mentioned, belonging to a guest or boarder, when such loss takes place from the room or rooms occupied by said guest or boarder; and no keeper of a hotel or restaurant shall be held liable for any loss on the part of any guest or boarder of jewelry, money or other valuables of like nature, provided such keeper shall have posted in a conspicuous place in the room or rooms occupied by such guest or boarder, and in the hotel office and public reception room of such hotel or restaurant, a notice stating that jewelry, money and other valuables of like nature must be deposited in the office of such hotel (or restaurant), unless such loss shall take place from such office after such deposit.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“We are of the opinion that the same rule should be applied to the duty to exercise due care and diligence in providing honest servants and employees, and the other requirements of the statute. That, we think, always was the duty of an innkeeper, even though whether he exercises such due care was unimportant, inasmuch as his liability was, in effect, absolute in any event. In our opinion, it was not the intent of the Legislature in enacting the 1899 statute, to destroy the common law absolute liability, and to set up a new standard in respect to the duty of innkeepers, but merely to give relief to innkeepers in the way of providing means of relieving themselves of all liability in certain instances, and limiting liability in others, provided certain things, namely, the exercise of due care and diligence in providing honest servants, and the exercise of reasonable precaution to protect the person and property of guests should be established.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Under our statute, all he has to do is to establish that he has exercised due care in providing honest servants and employees, and has taken every reasonable precaution to protect the person and property of his guests. This is not difficult to establish where such care has been exercised, and difficult to disprove. So, in effect, the limitation provided by the statute is open to all reputable innkeepers, where in them own interest, care is taken to provide honest servants. If such care is not taken, the innkeeper should bear the burden of his negligence because the guest is, to a very large degree, at his mercy, and, on grounds of public policy, entitled to his protection.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.