Question

The Happy Times Bar and Restaurant was located on a busy downtown street. The front part of the premises consisted of the bar and a few small tables where patrons were served drinks. The rear part of the building housed the restaurant, and a patron who wished to obtain a meal at the restaurant was required to pass through the bar room to reach the restaurant. On the wall of the short passageway separating the two rooms the owner had installed a number of coat hooks where employees could place their coats or jackets. Jacobs, a stranger to the community, entered the establishment for the purpose of obtaining lunch, and as he passed through the passageway connecting the bar to the restaurant, noticed the coat hooks. He removed his overcoat, hung it on one of the hooks, and proceeded into the restaurant where he was escorted to a table for his lunch. After lunch, Jacobs proceeded to the passageway to retrieve his overcoat, only to find that it was missing. He immediately spoke with the owner, who denied responsibility for the loss. Jacobs had just purchased the overcoat the previous day at a cost of $2,200. Since the overcoat was expensive, Jacobs contemplates legal action against the establishment to recover his loss.

Question : Advise Jacobs. How should he proceed to recover his loss? What arguments are likely to be raised by the restaurant owner? .

Answer 1

In the case, the clear purpose of the hooks in the passageway is to handle the coats or jackets and so is done by Jacob. The owner if providing the facility should also take care of the assets of the visitors. Denying the responsibility of Jacob’s Overcoat, the employer is doing wrong. He should have taken the responsibility and must have support Jacob through some genuine monetary consideration for the loss.

Jacob has purchased a new overcoat which was very expensive. Ethical he should buy of around similar cost of previous overcoat. Now the owner has actually don’t know about the cost of lost overcoat and Jacob is proceeding with legal action against the owner creates problem on the amount to be reimbursed to Jacob. Jacob can directly go to the owner and claim for the money of new coat but owner will naturally raise the question on the cost of lost overcoat. He will not be going give money more than the previous coat or will agree on some genuine price for a normal coat. As the new coat is very expensive of $2200, owner will ask Jacob that how he can believe that he had lost a similar amount coat. Also, owner will argue that he should have asked somebody in the restaurant before placing is overcoat on the hook so that somebody will take care of it. The restart will be responsible only if he should have told the staff in advance about his action.