Hiring.

Hiring. The contract of hiring, called in the law of England bailment for hire, and in that of Scotland location, is of two kinds—the hiring of things, as where household furniture is let to be used in the ordinary way; and the hiring of work, as where a tailor's labour is hired to make a suit of clothes. In hiring of the first kind, hiring of things, it is the duty of the person letting out the thing to deliver it to the hirer, to refrain from interfering with the hirer's use of the thing during the subsistence of the contract, to do nothing to deprive the hirer of the use, to warrant that the thing hired is fit for the use for which it is let, and to keep the thing free from faults and defects inconsistent with the proper use of it, and in suitable order and repair. The hirer acquires no right of property in the thing hired, but acquires its possession and the exclusive right to its use for the period of the agreement. He has to use the thing well and with care, not to put it to any other use than that for which it is let, to restore it at the expiry of the time agreed on, and to pay the stipulated hire. The contract of hiring is a different agreement from those made under what is known to traders as the 'hire-purchase' system, as where a piano is handed over by its owners to a purchaser under the conditions that a certain sum shall be paid periodically as hire, and that after a certain number of such periodical payments have been made the piano shall become the property of the person making the payment. No such contract as one of 'hire-purchase' is recognised by law; and in the cases which have come before the courts under this system the question always is whether the contract, whatever it may be called by the parties, is legally a contract of hiring or a contract of sale. The answer will depend upon the particular terms of each agreement. These, however, are usually so framed as to make the contract, not one of hiring, but one of sale with a suspensive condition that the thing delivered shall not become the property of the person to whom it is sold until he has paid the full number of periodical payments bargained for. These payments, though they may be called hire by the parties to such an agreement, are legally only so many instalments of the price of a thing sold. A piano or other article delivered under such an agreement does not become the property of the holder until all these instalments are paid; and it cannot be attached by the creditors of the holder as an asset in his estate. Nor can it be lawfully sold by the holder. It remains the property of the person letting it out, and he can recover it even from one who has purchased it in good faith from the person by whom it was hired. Hiring of the second kind above mentioned, hiring of work, may be subdivided into (a) the hire of services, as where a shoemaker is employed to mend shoes; (b) the hiring of care in custody, as where warehousemen or wharfingers are employed to store things; and (c) the hiring of the carriage of goods. In cases of the first kind the workman is bound to do the work agreed on, to do it at the time agreed on, to do it well, and to use an appropriate degree of care in performing the particular task. Employees in the last two classes are bound to take ordinary care of the goods entrusted to them, and are responsible for damage done by their negligence. See also LANDLORD AND TENANT, INN, MASTER AND SERVANT, CARRIER, &c.