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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. |
