Liveryman

A liveryman who hires out a horse and driver is a private, and not a common, carrier. He is required only to “exercise the usual care, skill and diligence ordinarily exercised by tho.se engaged in the same pursuit”; Payne v. Halstead, 44 111. App. 97; Mc Gregor v..Gill, 114 Tenn. 621, 86 S. W. 318, 108 Am. St. Rep. 919; relations between the hirer and the liveryman are 689, 18 Ann. Cas. 536. If the horse wa» not reasonably safe, and this fact was known to him, or could, by reasonable care, have been known to him, he Is liable in case of an accident; Nisbet v. Wells, 76 S. W. 120, 25 Ky. L. Rep. 611; Conn v. Hunsberger, 224 Pa. 154, 73 Atl. 324, 25 L. R. A. (N. S.) 372, 132 Am. St. Rep. 770, 16 Ann. Cas. 504; Lynch v. Richardson, 163 Mass. 160, 39 N. E. 801, 47 Am. St. Rep. 444. If he negligently furnishes an unsuitable horse, it is no defense that he did not know it was such; Horne v. Meakin, 116 Mass. 320. It is his duty to notify a customer of any vicious propensity of his hor.se; Ohlweiler v. Lohmann, 88 Wis. 75, 59 N. W. 678; Windle v. Jordan, 75 Me. 149; he must keep safe hors- ^ or fully disclose the character of the horse at the time of hiring him; Iluntoon v. Trumbull, 12 Fed. 844. The “customer must rely upon the liveryman to guard him against the danger of a vicious animal or defective vehicle”; Conn v. Hunsberger, 224 Pa. 154, 73 Atl. 324, 25 L. R. A. (N. S.) 372, 132 Am. St. Rep. 770, 16 Ann. Cas. 604; so also L. R. 10 C. P. 90. Where a liveryman hired a vicious horse, with a carriage and driver, to one who took his wife to drive, and the horse became unmanageable, and both the husband and wife were upset and injured, held that he was liable to the wife, independent of contract, because It was his duty to warn her, and also because, as he kept control of the carriage, he was bound to carry her safely with a proper horse; White and Wife v. Steadman, [1913] 3 K. B. 340. See Lien.

Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia

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