Hotel-Keepers' Liability Act 1964

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AT 1 of 1964

HOTEL-KEEPERS’ LIABILITY ACT 1964

Hotel-Keepers' Liability Act 1964 Index


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HOTEL-KEEPERS’ LIABILITY ACT 1964

Index Section Page

1 Convention to have force of law ................................................................................... 5
2 Limitation of liability ...................................................................................................... 5
3 Notice to be displayed if hotel keeper to benefit from certain provisions ............. 6
4 Interpretation ................................................................................................................... 6
5 [Repealed] ........................................................................................................................ 6
6 Savings ............................................................................................................................. 6
7 Short title and commencement ..................................................................................... 6
FIRST SCHEDULE 7

ANNEX 7
SECOND SCHEDULE 10

NOTICE 10
ENDNOTES 11

TABLE OF LEGISLATION HISTORY 11
TABLE OF RENUMBERED PROVISIONS 11
TABLE OF ENDNOTE REFERENCES 11

Hotel-Keepers' Liability Act 1964 Section 1


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HOTEL-KEEPERS’ LIABILITY ACT 1964

Received Royal Assent: 27 July 1964
Passed: 20 October 1964
Commenced: 20 October 1964
AN ACT
to give the force of law in the Isle of Man to the Annex to the
Convention on the Liability of Hotel-Keepers concerning the Property of their
Guests.
1 Convention to have force of law

(1) Subject to this Act the provisions of the Annex to the Convention done at
Paris on the 17th day of December, 1962, and known as the Convention
on the Liability of Hotel-Keepers concerning the Property of their Guests,
as set out in the First Schedule to this Act, shall have the force of law in
the Isle of Man.
(2) This section shall not apply so as to affect rights or liabilities arising out
of an occurrence before the coming into force of this section.
2 Limitation of liability

(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article l of the said
Annex, and subject to the provisions of this section, the liability of a
hotel-keeper to any guest shall, for the purposes of that Article, be
limited to £65 in respect of any one article, or to £130 in aggregate.1

(2) In the event of the said amounts of fifty pounds and one hundred
pounds becoming less than the equivalent of 1,500 gold francs and 3,000
gold francs respectively the Treasury shall as soon as may be as the
necessity may from time to time arise by Order increase the said amounts
to such sums as shall not be less than the equivalents of 1,500 gold francs
and 3,000 gold francs respectively, and upon the making of such an
Order subsection (1) of this section shall have effect as though for the
said amounts of fifty pounds and one hundred pounds there were
substituted the respective amounts specified in the Order:
Provided that if the amounts specified in an Order made under this
subsection exceed by more than twenty-five pounds the equivalents of
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1,500 gold francs or 3,000 gold francs respectively, such Order shall not
take effect until the same shall have been approved by resolution of
Tynwald.2

3 Notice to be displayed if hotel keeper to benefit from certain

provisions

Notwithstanding the provisions of section two of this Act and of paragraph 3 of
Article I of the said Annex a hotel-keeper shall not be entitled to the benefit of
those provisions unless, at the time when the property was brought to the hotel,
a copy of the notice in the form set out in the Second Schedule to this Act
specifying the limits of liability imposed by this Act or by any Order made
thereunder, printed in plain type, was conspicuously displayed in a place where
it could conveniently be read by his guests at or near the reception office or desk
or, where there is no reception office or desk, at or near the main entrance to
the hotel.
4 Interpretation

In this Act “hotel”
means any hotel, inn, tavern, public-house, boarding house,
lodging house, holiday camp or holiday centre where guests are, for reward,
received and boarded or lodged but shall not include holiday hostels, youth
hostels or camp sites, and “hotel-keeper
” shall be construed accordingly.
5 [Repealed]
3

6 Savings

Subject to the express provisions of this Act, the liability of any hotel-keeper in
respect of loss or injury to goods or property brought to his hotel shall, after the
commencement of this Act, be the same as it was prior thereto.4

7 Short title and commencement

(1) This Act may be cited as the Hotel-Keepers’ Liability Act, 1964.
(2) This Act shall come into operation when the Royal Assent thereto has
been by the Governor announced to Tynwald and a certificate thereof
has been signed by the Governor and the Speaker of the House of Keys,
but shall take effect from and after the first day of October, 1964.
Hotel-Keepers' Liability Act 1964 First Schedule



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First Schedule

[Section 1]
ANNEX

Article 1
1. A hotel-keeper shall be liable for any damage to or destruction or loss of
property brought to the hotel by any guest who stays at the hotel and has
sleeping accommodation put at his disposal.

2. Any property —
(a) which is at the hotel during the time when the guest has the
accommodation at his disposal;
(b) of which the hotel-keeper or a person for whom he is responsible
takes charge outside the hotel during the period for which the
guest has the accommodation at his disposal; or
(c) of which the hotel-keeper or the person for whom he is
responsible takes charge whether at the hotel or outside it during
a reasonable period preceding or following the time when the
guest has the accommodation at his disposal;
shall be deemed to be property brought to the hotel.
3. The liability shall be limited to the equivalent of 3,000 gold francs.
4. The gold franc mentioned in the preceding paragraph refers to a unit
consisting of sixty-five and a half milligrammes of gold of millesimal
fineness nine hundred.

Article 2
1. The liability of a hotel-keeper shall be unlimited:
(a) where the property has been deposited with him;
(b) where he has refused to receive property which he is bound to
receive for safe custody.
2. A hotel-keeper shall be bound to receive securities, money and valuable
articles; he may only refuse to receive such property if it is dangerous or
if, having regard to the size or standing of the hotel, it is of excessive
value or cumbersome.

3. A hotel-keeper shall have the right to require that the article shall be in a
First Schedule
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fastened or sealed container.


Hotel-Keepers' Liability Act 1964 First Schedule



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Article 3
A hotel-keeper shall not be liable in so far as the damage, destruction or loss is due;
(a) to the guest or to any person accompanying him or in his
employment or any person visiting him;
(b) to an unforeseeable and irresistible act of nature or an act of war:
(c) to the nature of the article.
Article 4
The hotel-keeper shall be liable and shall not have the benefit of the limitation on his
liability laid down in paragraph 3 of Article 1 of this Annex where the damage,
destruction or loss is caused by a wilful act or omission or negligence, on his part or on
the part of any person for whose actions he is responsible.
Article 5
Except in any case to which Article 4 of this Annex applies, the guest shall cease to be
entitled to the benefit of these provisions if after discovering the damage, destruction
or loss he does not inform the hotel-keeper without undue delay.
Article 6
Any notice or agreement purporting to exclude or diminish the hotel-keeper’s liability
given or made before the damage, destruction or loss has occurred shall be null and
void.
Article 7
The provisions of this Annex shall not apply to vehicles, any property left with a
vehicle or live animals.


Second Schedule
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Second Schedule

NOTICE

Section 3
[Sch 2 amended by GC169/79.]
Loss or Damage to Guests’ Property
Under the Hotel-Keepers’ Liability Act, 1964, a hotel-keeper shall be liable for any
damage to or destruction or loss of property brought to the hotel by any guest who
stays at the hotel and has sleeping accommodation put at his disposal.
Unless the property has been deposited with the hotel-keeper his liability is limited to
£65 for any one article and a total of £130 in the case of any one guest.
The hotel-keeper shall not be liable for damage, destruction or loss due —
(a) to the guest or his employees or visitors;
(b) to an unforeseeable or irresistible act of nature or an act of war;
(c) to the nature of the article,
nor in respect of vehicles, property left with a vehicle nor live
animals.
This notice does not constitute an admission either that the Act applies to this hotel or
that liability thereunder attaches to the proprietor of this hotel in any particular case.
Hotel-Keepers' Liability Act 1964 Endnotes


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ENDNOTES

Table of Legislation History

Legislation Year and No Commencement






Table of Renumbered Provisions

Original Current






Table of Endnote References

1
Subs (1) amended by GC169/79. 2
Subs (2) amended by Treasury Act 1985 Sch 2. 3
S 5 repealed by Statute Law Revision Act 1983 Sch 2. 4
S 6 amended by Statute Law Revision Act 1983 Sch 2.