Selamwit went to Rivercity Book Store to buy her college textbooks. She became absorbed in glancing at some bestsellers and lost track of the time. Suddenly, she realized she had to leave quickly in order to meet her date for dinner. She hastily

Question

departed from the store, inadvertently leaving her backpack on a sales counter. Melissa, a sales clerk, noticed the backpack on the counter but left it there, expecting Selamwit to return for it. Later, when Selamwit returned to retrieve the backpack, it was gone. Selamwit sued Rivercity Book Store for the loss of her backpack. Will she be able to recover?

Answer 1

Probably. Personal property voluntarily placed on another's premises and then forgotten is classified as mislaid property. Since the owner of the mislaid property is expected to remember where he or she has left the property and to return to the premises to pick it up, the owner of the premises has both the right of possession and the duty of caretaker (as an involuntary bailee) over the property. As a caretaker, the bookstore must exercise reasonable care over the property and is liable for failure to do
so. Since Selamwit's backpack had been voluntarily placed on the counter and then forgotten, it is mislaid property. The store had a duty to exercise reasonable care over the backpack until Selamwit returned. Melissa's failure to put it in a safe place amounts to a probable failure of that duty. Selamwitwill likely win a judgment against Rivercity Book Store.