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42 App. D.C. 496

Sims v. Roy

District of Columbia Court of Appeals

Decided December 7, 1914

District of Columbia Court of Appeals · decided 1914-12-07

Hearing on an appeal by tbe defendant from a judgment of tbe Supreme Court of tbe District of Columbia, on verdict, for tbe plaintiff, in an action to recover damages for injury to bis borse while in defendant’s care and custody.

Relies on Anne Sweeney v. William G Errving · Collins v. . Bennett · Hackney v. Perry

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1914-12-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently May 1960

1 federal appellate · 9 state decisions

40191419201930194019501960decided

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.

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Mr. Justice Pobb

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court:

¶2The modern rule is to the effect that where personal property is placed in the hands of a bailee for hire in good condition, and it is injured or destroyed while in his custody, under circumstances ordinarily inconsistent with the exercise of due care, and there is nothing to rebut the inference arising from the circumstances, the loss may fairly be found to have been occasioned by negligence. In other words, the facts of the occurrence, unexplained, warrant the inference of negligence, and call for explanation from the bailee, because he alone is in a position to make it. Jackson v. McDonald, 70 N. J. L. 594, 57 Atl. 126, 15 Am. Neg. Rep. 611; Collins v. Bennett, 46 N. Y. 490, 1 Am. Neg. Cas. 696; Davis v. A. O. Taylor & Son, 92 Neb. 769, 139 N. AV. 687; Hackney v. Perry, 152 Ala. 626, 44 So. 1029; Hunter v. Ricke Bros. 127 Iowa, 108, 102 N. W. 826, 18 Am. Neg. Rep. 68; Hildebrand v. Carroll, 106 Wis. 324, 80 Am. St. Rep. 29, 82 N. W. 145; The Genessee, 70 C. C. A. 613, 138 Fed. 549. But this rule in no way changes the burden of proof, for, when all the evidence is in, the preponderance must be with the plaintiff. Sweeney v. Erving, 228 U. S. 233, 57 L. ed. 815, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 416; Sullivan v. Capital Traction Co. 34 App. D. C. 358.

¶3Here, however, the plaintiff did not rest his case upon the fact that property placed in the defendant’s custody in good condition was injured in such a way as to be inconsistent with due care on the part of the defendant, but introduced *500evidence tending to show negligence. This evidence was not controverted by the defendant, and therefore the sole question for the jury was whether, under the undisputed facts, the defendant had exercised due care. In the circumstances, we do not think there is reversible error in the charge. We therefore affirm the judgment, with costs. Affirmed.

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