Legal Commentary

Two stories over the past weeks have featured bar patrons leaving behind items of some significance after paying their tabs and heading for the taxi stand.  As James Grimmelman wrote in this space on Tuesday, an Apple employee may have walked off without a prototype future iPhone.  Earlier this month, a member of the production crew for the final installments of the Harry Potter films left a copy of the shooting script at a bar.

When such items are found (and sold?) by fellow patrons, we get into issues of lost and abandoned property, theft, and the like.  We also wonder about the actions available for employers against employees who handle such sensitive property without the requisite level of care. 

But what about the legal obligations of the bartenders? If friends are fiduciaries, why not friendly barkeeps?  Do patrons put trust and confidence in those behind the bar?  If a bartender finds a lost item of value, what obligations does s/he have to safeguard and protect the item?  To maintain confidences regarding what was found?

Sadly, the case law does not seem to support this proposition.  Largely, such cases revolve around whether barkeeps owe a duty to intoxicated patrons to stop them from driving.  Courts have generally found that no "special relationship" exists between a barkeep and patrons arising simply from the service of alcohol. See, e.g., Welton v. Ferrara, 2009 WL 1312569 (Conn. Super. 2009).

Certainly, one hopes that if any bartenders find a stack of first-year contracts exams left behind at closing time, they'll exercise an utmost degree of care.