The House of Lords yesterday week decided on appeal a
point of no little importance to railway-travellers, in the case of "The Great Western Railway Company v. Bunch and wife," —namely, that luggage entrusted to a porter, either for consign- ment to the van or for safe custody and consignment to the passenger's carriage, a reasonable time before the departure of a train (i.e., not too long before it), is entrusted to the Railway Com- pany, who have implicitly, by their customary practice, accepted the trust. The luggage is therefore in their safe-keeping, and they are responsible for it if it is not safely kept. Lord Bramwell was the only dissentient from this decision, and as the Lord Chancellor's decision was supported by Lord Watson, Lord Herschel, and Lord Macnaghten, it has not only the final Court of Appeal, but a very substantial amount of individual judicial opinion in its favour. For our own part, we should have thought that the Great Western Railway Company were not very wise in contesting the County-Court Judge's (Mr. Stonor's) original decision. It is far more for the advantage of the Company that the passengers should place confidence in their arrangements and regulations, than that the Company should save a few pounds here and there by destroying their passengers' confidence.
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