Assignment Learning Objectives:
- Describe the legal relationship of the innkeeper-guest
- Explain the legal obligations of a hotel to a guest and duties owed by guests
- Analyze the liabilities and rights of hotel operators
This assignment question comes in 3 parts and all 3 parts must be answered.
1. Identify and describe the four elements required to prove negligence successfully
2. Hoot Seng, a guest who is already booked into a hotel room returns to the hotel after mid-night after spending the night in the city wining and dining. Walking along a corridor to his room, he trips over a step and falls flat on his face, breaking his nose and suffering substantial dental damage.
3. Consider each of the elements of negligence that was identified in (i) above, to decide whether the guest Hoot Seng would be likely to succeed in an action for negligence against the owners of the hotel taking into account 3 scenarios as follows:
- Where the hotelier had set his night-lighting to turn off automatically at midnight to save electricity costs, thus making the section of the corridor where the step was located dark and obscure?
- Where the section of the corridor was brightly lit?
- Whether the hotel could consider any relevant defenses to the claim by the guest?
