lainys

Link to Original article here.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The ABC7 News I-Team is investigating what attorneys argue is a loophole in the law that allows hotels across the state to avoid paying actual damages to guests.
Imagine you booked a hotel, but the hotel accidentally gave all your stuff away to an alleged criminal without checking for any valid ID. It happened in San Francisco to Bob Sabouni. According to the court judgment, Sabouni lost $8,390.88 of his belongings. He sued the San Francisco Marriott Marquis and won. In a surprise move, Marriott successfully appealed the case. But, the state Superior Court Judge overseeing the case says it was done so unfairly.

Here's how it happened.

Bob's story

What was supposed to be a post-lockdown summer getaway to San Francisco turned into a legal nightmare for Bob Sabouni.

In June of 2021, Sabouni and his friends checked into the San Francisco Marriott Marquis before heading to a Giants game. Sabouni says his room wasn't ready so the hotel offered to hold his bags.
"Then we went onto the game and we had a great time. Giants won!" Sabouni said.

But later that night, Sabouni came back to a big loss.
"Everyone's stuff was there, except mine," he said.

Sabouni says his luggage - which included a Briggs & Riley rollaway bag, a Tumi leather backpack, an iPad Pro, a MacBook Pro, a 4TB hard drive with his social security number and seven years of tax documents - was nowhere to be found.
"The next morning I spoke to the manager who said they were looking into it and found out they had given my stuff to somebody else," Sabouni said.

According to the court judgment, hotel surveillance footage shows later that afternoon a man walked into the Marriott claiming he checked his bag but lost his claim check.
"Remarkably the Marriott let the guy walk into the back room, he pointed at my bags and said those are mine... the guy said, is there any way you can prove it? Do you have tickets? Do you have ID? And the guy said I have none of that, but just mentioned there's a computer in that bag." Sabouni said.
"Sure enough there was and they just handed my stuff over."

Sabouni says in the weeks that followed the hotel was unwilling to compensate him for his losses unless he provided receipts for every item. Frustrated with the process, Sabouni later sued Marriott in small claims court and won.
"The judge awarded us $5,000 which was nowhere near the almost $9,000 that I'd lost, but you know I was satisfied," Sabouni said.
But, the story doesn't end there.

Legal battle

Marriott then appealed the case on the grounds of a law enacted in 1872 - also known as the Inn Keeper's statute - that limits a hotel's liability for guests' belongings to $1,000. Marriott won the appeal, but not fairly according to San Francisco Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ross who wrote:
"This is one of the rare instances where the law does not allow the court to achieve the equitable result."

According to the court judgment, Ross highlighted the fact the law is outdated, saying in part this statute "has not been revised to accord with the current value of luggage, clothing, and most notably computer equipment and its data."
"Prices have gone up enormously since this law was first enacted," said Jim Wilcox, an economics professor at UC Berkeley's School of Business.

Wilcox said prices of goods and services have gone up 20 to 25 times since this law was first enacted in 1872. Yet, in 2022, hotels in California are liable for items up to $1,000 - at maximum.
"Compared to when the law was first enacted, $1,000 then would be the equivalent in real purchasing power terms would require a ceiling of about $25,000," Wilcox said.

Judge Ross wrote in the court judgment: "One might expect Marriott to recognize the aberration and in the interest of customer relations, to pay the judgment. Instead, Marriot appealed."
The ABC7 News I-Team reached out to the Marriott for an on-camera interview, but hotel management declined to speak and give any comment.

Sabouni valued his stolen items to be worth nearly $8,400. But according to Marriott's trial brief, the hotel was only legally liable for $500, due to this statute.
"It needs to modernize with the times, while the physical computer might be worth x dollars, what's on there is worth a lot more," said Relani Belous, founder of the Belous Law Firm. "You have an industry that has a get out of jail free card."

The Inn Keeper's Statute hasn't been amended in 42 years - leaving consumers like Sabouni paying the price.
"For me, it's a matter of holding them accountable for the safety of customers and not giving them this shield," said Sabouni.

After the appeal, the court ordered Marriott to pay Sabouni $1,553 for a mistake made by their own staff. Meanwhile, Sabouni told the I-Team accounting for his losses, he's spent well over $10,000 trying to fight this case.
The question now is - is it time for the law to change?

The _Banking_Scot

Hi

wow that is shocking. Thanks for posting lainys

I have left my stuff at hotels for storage before and it had not occurred to me about limits for liability ( I have seen signs re using the in room safe) but do have insurance when I travel

good on him for pursuing it and hope he had back up for his tax records on his hard drive ( useful in any case if the hard drive packs up)

seems a lot of valuable stuff to take for 1 night ( re reading it maybe not so much)

Surprised the hotel did not ask for the name and the thief got lucky saying there was a pc in the bag if it was what type of pc it would be harder)

poor performance by the hotel.

Regards
tbs

username

I saw this on the news too:
I think not only the law has to change, the hotel should really step up and not hide behind the law. I hope at least his drive was encrypted.

HNLbasedFlyer

Well - I would never trust over $8,000 of belongings to hotel storage. That is just a lack of common sense.

In the unlikely event I had that much stuff I'd pay for an extra night at the hotel.

Oxon Flyer

Just for the benefit of those of us looking on thinking this is one of those "Only in America" stories, is it really accepted and normal that a hotel would just pay out $9k on the say-so of a guest, without any verification of the items lost ?

Similarly

Were the police not involved ?

VSLover

depends on the person. thats the two laptops, ipad and luggage i travel with and all the bits and bobs. it does add up which gives caution to handing over a bag or two.

puchong

Being a foreigner, you are of course excused for not knowing how the Police operate on the other side of the pond, especially in a high-crime location like SF. No police station (er, precinct) would entertain such a complaint let alone actually investigate - it is just too trivial for them. Going to the police would be a waste of time for all practical purposes.

CPH-Flyer

I guess you might need to file a report for insurance purposes? Insurance companies might require that for settling the claim.

But look at airlines' liability on an international flight, 1288 SDR for your checked luggage. Hence the need for travel insurance. Two pairs of designer shoes in a checked bag and you are close to or above the liability limit.

nexusCFX

Not really that unlikely to have that much stuff in a bag. My laptop alone would cost 5000 to replace if lost. Tablet 1800, bag itself is a few hundred, etc, etc.

I've left it with hotels before but I mostly travel to places like Japan where there is zero chance they would just let someone walk out in the scenario described here. I've never really thought before about how much it would actually cost to replace the stuff if it was lost though. Actually writing out the numbers here has me second guessing leaving bags in the future, depending on where I am.

username

I didn't want to get into blaming the victim but I hope at least he encrypted his 4 TB hard drive and has backups.

If I just go for a "weekend with the buddies" trip, I probably would not have carried all that stuff UNLESS I was flying to/from a business trip. You would think in a huge hotel that does this routinely, there would be enough security measure to avoid this kind of thing. On top of that, given the security situation in SF, one can reasonably believe it is safer to leave the stuff at the hotel than carrying it.

On the subject of SF Police: Basically given how short-staffed the Police is and how bad the morale is in most large US cities, you really can't count on them for "little things" like this...

cre95

So, what would you do in the circumstances? You get to the hotel and your room is not ready… I guess you’d skip the game or bring your bags along?

I’m not siding with either side but just saying … wouldn’t you have assumed that the Marriott would keep your stuff safe? After all, isn’t the Marriott aspiring to be a 5-star hotel?