Bailment is an immensely vivid aspect of law as it is not entirely covered in just one subject of law. Essentially, bailment is delivery of goods but after much perusal one can say that it covers much more than mere delivery of goods. It is an amalgam of contract, property and tort law. Since, in most cases bailment arose out of a valid contract, it was believed that contract was an essential pre-requisite for the creation of bailment and it could be seen in judgments like ‘R v Ashwell’ and ‘Banbury v Bank of Montreal’. Earlier, ‘consent’ and ‘contract’ were pre-requisites for a valid contract of bailment. Further, the bailor could earlier sue in detinue for wrongful detention. Bailment, as we see it today, was much less complex earlier as it had not developed completely. With the course of time, the concept of bailment grew deeper and wider. One aspect of bailment that is bailment without consent and contract developed and continues to develop ambiguously. It is this aspect that the paper is centered around.

 Download Full Paper