Hayes Jewelers is a jewelry wholesaler.  Lowell was employed by Hayes as a traveling sales representative.  He drove his own vehicle to meet clients and attend trade shows.  His practice was to keep the jewelry in the trunk of his vehilce while he was traveling on business.  He kept the trunk padlocked and kept the only key to the padlock on the key ring with his ignition key.

One day, when he was traveling from a jewelry trade show, he stopped at Sam's Car Wash.  At Sam's, the driver leaves the vehicle with employees of the car wash, and the vehicle is sent through a wash tunnel.  After the wash cycle, an employee drives the vehicle to another area of the car wash premises to be hand dried.  Once the vehicle is dried, the driver is signaled to retrieve the vehicle.

Lowell left his car and the keys with a car wash employee.  Jewelry worth $950,000 was locked in the trunk of the vehicle.  Lowell watched the car go through the tunnel and also watched as an employee dried the vehicle.  As Lowell was standing at the counter waiting to pay the cashier, he saw the employee wave a flag, indicating that the vehicle was ready for him.  The employee then walked away from the vehicle.  While Lowell was standing at the cashier counter, someone jumped into his vehicle and sped off.  When the police recovered the vehicle 15 minutes later, the jewelry was gone.

Hayes sued Sam's Car Wash to recover the value of the jewelry, arguing that a bailment had been created and that the car wash, as the bailee, was negligent in protecting the jewelry.  The car wash denied liability.  Who should win this case?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

In this case its likely that Hayes would win the ca... View the full answer