THE PRAETORIAN EDICT AND B&Bs Gabriel v Enchanted Bed and Breakfast CC 2002 6 SA 597 (C)

Abstract

Lawyers have from time immemorial been confronted with the problem of travellers having their property stolen or damaged while spending the night under a roof. Evidence of this is the praetorian edict de nautis cauponibus et stabulariis, which provided for a particularly strict regime of innkeeper’s liability. That regime, which found its roots in the highly unsatisfactory state of the hospitality industry millennia ago, has now extended its impact into, in the South African context, the post-modern phenomenon of B&B
establishments.