But there was another way besides this by which the defendant
could be charged with a duty and made liable [184] in case, and
which, although less familiar to lawyers, has a special bearing
on the law of carriers in later times. If damage had been done or
occasioned by the act or omission of the defendant in the pursuit
of some of the more common callings, such as that of a farrier,
it seems that the action could be maintained, without laying an
assumpsit, on the allegation that he was a "common" farrier. /1/
The latter principle was also wholly independent of bailment. It
expressed the general obligation of those exercising a public or
"common" business to practise their art on demand, and show skill
in it. "For," as Fitzherbert says, "it is the duty of every
artificer to exercise his art rightly and truly as he ought." /2/
When it had thus been established that case would lie for damage
when occasioned by the omission, as well as when caused by the
act, of the defendant, there was no reason for denying it, even
if the negligent custody had resulted in the destruction of the
property. /3/ From this it was but a step to extend the same form
of action to all cases of loss by a bailee, and so avoid the
defendant's right to wage his law. Detinue, the primitive remedy,
retained that mark of primitive procedure. The last extension was
made about the time of Southcote's Case. /4/ But when the [185]
same form of action thus came to be used alike for damage or
destruction by the bailee's neglect and for loss by a wrong-doer
against whom the bailee had a remedy over, a source was opened
for confusion with regard to the foundation and nature of the
defendant's duty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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