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HOTEL
PROPRIETORS ACT, 1957 (NO. 20 OF
1957)
ARRANGEMENT OF
SECTIONS
Section
1. Short title.
2.
Interpretation.
3. Liabilities
and rights of hotel proprietors as
innkeepers.
4. Modification
of liabilities and rights of hotel
proprietors as innkeepers.
5. Repeal. 26
and 27 Vict. C.41.
SCHEDULE
Schedule
GHANA
1957 NO. 20.
DATE OF ASSENT
Assented to in
Her Majesty's Name and on Her
Majesty's behalf this 28th day of
September, 1957.
K. A. KORSAH
Acting
Governor-General.
AN ACT to
amend the law relating to inns and
innkeepers.
Date of
Commencement: [5th October,
1957.].
BE IT ENACTED
by the Queen's Most Excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice
and consent of the National
Assembly of Ghana in this present
Parliament assembled, and by the
authority of the same as follows:—
Section
1—Short Title.
This Act may be
cited as the Hotel Proprietors
Act, 1957.
Section
2—Interpretation.
(1) In this
Act, the expression "hotel" means
an establishment held out by the
proprietor as offering food, drink
and, if so required, sleeping
accommodation without special
contract, to any traveller
presenting himself who appears
able and willing to pay a
reasonable sum for the services
and facilities provided and who is
in a fit state to be received.
Such an establishment shall, and
any other establishment shall not,
be deemed to be an inn.
Cap. 1
(2) The
Interpretation Ordinance shall
apply for the interpretation of
this Act as it applies for the
interpretation of an Ordinance.
Section
3—Liabilities and Rights of Hotel
Proprietors as Innkeepers.
(1) The duties,
liabilities and rights which
immediately before the
commencement of this Act by law
attached to an innkeeper as an
innkeeper shall, subject to the
provisions of this Act, attach to
the proprietor of an hotel and
shall not attach to any other
person.
(2) The
proprietor of an hotel shall, as
an innkeeper, be under the like
liability, if any, to make good to
any guest of his any damage to
property brought to the hotel as
he would be under to make good the
loss thereof.
Section
4—Modification of Liabilities and
Rights of Hotel Proprietors.
(1) Without
prejudice to any other liability
incurred by him with respect to
any property brought to the hotel,
the proprietor of an hotel shall
not be liable as an innkeeper to
make good to any traveller any
loss of or damage to such property
except where—
(a) at the time
of the loss or damage sleeping
accommodation at the hotel had
been engaged for the traveller;
and
(b) the loss or
damage occurred during the period
commencing with the midnight
immediately preceding, and ending
with the midnight immediately
following, a period for which the
traveller was a guest at the hotel
and entitled to use the
accommodation so engaged.
(2) Without
prejudice to any other liability
or right of his with respect
thereto, the proprietor of an
hotel shall not as an innkeeper be
liable to make good to any guest
of his any loss of or damage to,
or have any lien on, any vehicle
or any property left therein, or
any horse or other live animal or
its harness or other equipment.
(3) Where the
proprietor of an hotel is liable
as an innkeeper to make good the
loss of or any damage to property
brought to the hotel, his
liability to any one guest shall
not exceed fifty pounds in respect
of any one article, or one hundred
pounds in the aggregate, except
where—
(a) the
property was stolen, lost or
damaged through the default,
neglect or wilful act of the
proprietor or of some servant of
his; or
(b) the
property was deposited by or on
behalf of the guest expressly for
safe custody with the proprietor
or some servant of his authorised,
or appearing to be authorised, for
the purpose, and, if so required
by the proprietor or that servant,
in a container fastened or sealed
by the depositor; or
(c) at a time
after the guest had arrived at the
hotel, either the property in
question was offered for deposit
as aforesaid and the proprietor or
his servant refused to receive it,
or the guest or some other guest
acting on his behalf wished so to
offer the property in question
but, through the default of the
proprietor or a servant of his,
was unable to do so:
Proviso.
Provided that
the proprietor shall not be
entitled to the protection of this
subsection unless, at the time
when the property in question was
brought to the hotel, a copy of
the notice set out in the Schedule
to this Act 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.
Section
5—Repeal.
The Innkeepers
Liability Act, 1863, as it applies
in Ghana is hereby repealed.
SCHEDULE
(Section 4)
NOTICE
LOSS OF OR
DAMAGE TO GUESTS' PROPERTY
Under the Hotel
Proprietors Act, 1957, an hotel
proprietor may in certain
circumstances be liable to make
good any loss of or damage to a
guest's property even though it
was not due to any fault of the
proprietor or staff of the hotel.
This liability
however—
(a) extends
only to the property of guests who
have engaged sleeping
accommodation at the hotel;
(b) is limited
to £50 for any one article and a
total of £100 in the case of any
one guest, except in the case of
property which has been deposited,
or offered for deposit, for safe
custody;
(c) does not
cover motor-cars or other vehicles
of any kind or any property left
in them, or horses or other 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.
This printed
impression has been carefully
compared by me with the Bill which
has passed the National Assembly,
and found by me to be a true and
correctly printed copy of the said
Bill.
L. P. TOSU
Acting Clerk of
the National Assembly.
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