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The Law Of Finding


The general rule is that the finder has a clear title against every one

but the owner. The proprietor of a hotel or a shop has no right to

demand property of others found on his premises. Such proprietors may

make regulations in regard to lost property which will bind their

employes, but they cannot bind the public. The finder has been held to

stand in the place of the owner, so that he was permitted to prevail in

all action against a person who found an article which the plaintiff had

originally found, but subsequently lost. The police have no special

rights in regard to articles lost, unless those rights are conferred by

statute. Receivers of articles found are trustees for the owner or

finder. They have no power in the absence of special statute to keep an

article against the finder, any more than the finder has to retain an

article against the owner.



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